- The US is number 1 in the world in social spending as a percent of GDP. (Includes the value of tax expenditures as well as direct public spending,) (HT: Tyler)
- The case for school choice: results from Florida.
- About 40% of the 70 million people enrolled in Medicare meet the clinical definition of obesity.
- The federal government’s Medicaid spending in California is more than the general fund budget of every other state.
Category: Medicaid
Tackle Widespread Food Stamp Waste, Fraud and Abuse
The USDA recently began an initiative to battle food stamp fraud and abuse. Existing loopholes in federal regulations require no asset test to qualify. Thus, recipients can live in large houses and drive luxury cars but still qualify for the SNAP program if their income appears low enough on paper. According to the Secretary of Agriculture, 14,000 individuals from just one red state drive luxury cars, including three Bentleys, three Ferraris, three Lamborghinis, 59 Maseratis and 141 Porsches.
High-Deductible Plans are Increasing but Need Important Reforms
I’m a fan of high-deductible health plans, but the premiums under Obamacare are too high compared to the benefits. Plans should be able to offer annual and lifetime caps on benefits to reduce premiums further. Obamacare’s ban on annual and lifetime benefits is what allowed drug prices and the price of some medical procedures to reach the stratosphere. In addition, with hospitals acquiring physician practices many consumers are being steered to hospital owned facilities which have higher prices.
Friday Links – 1 May 2026
- Surprise: If you overstated your income to qualify for (Obamacare) subsidies last year (they averaged just over $6,000 per person), you will now be required to pay them back.
- Study: Retirement accelerates cognitive decline. (HT: Tyler)
- Why fruit doesn’t taste like it used to,
- What can we learn about humans from the study of chimpanzee warfare?
- “Skinny labeling” occurs when generic companies seek regulatory approval to market a medicine for a specific use, but not other patented uses for which a brand-name drug is prescribed. (Statnews)
- Medicaid and SNAP lost nearly $50 billion to fraud last year.