- How parents decide when and how to punish their children. It’s similar to the principles of criminal law.
- Reducing carbon emissions through subsidies (the Biden/IRA approach) costs 6 times as much as a carbon tax.
- Why the Medicare Trustees report is too optimistic: It assumes the birth rate in the long-run will increase to a nearly full native replacement of 2.0 children per woman, despite a steady and now long-standing fall to around 1.65.
- 80% of new treatments in the pharmaceutical pipeline originate in the U.S. That’s been a Godsend for the more than 55 million people living with dementia across the globe, the tens of millions worldwide who will receive a cancer diagnosis, and the more than 38 million people living with HIV.
- David Henderson’s proposal to cut Medicare spending: offer beneficiaries cash instead of a benefit in kind. I would offer everyone approved for elective surgery half the DRG rate in cash as an alternative. This is actually how some European countries handle long term care.
Category: Medicare
Thursday Links
- Families making as much as $600,000 can get an Obamacare subsidy. The entire W&M hearing with Sec. Becerra is either very funny or very sad, depending on how the spirit moves you.
- The federal government spent a total of $4.1 trillion on transfer payments to individuals in FY 2022. By comparison, the government spent $2.8 trillion on these programs in 2019.
- Cowen: Would an AI Pause in the US open the door to other countries? What if it stifles the cure for cancer?
- GFPT-4 fails the sophomore econ exam.
Little Effort Goes into Estate Recovery for Medicaid Long Term Care
A few years ago I was visiting a friend and noticed the house beside him looked different. It had been vacant but was now occupied. I asked if he had a new neighbor? He told me his neighbor, an elderly man, had gone into a nursing home and passed away after a lengthy stay. The man’s son inherited his father’s house and moved in. About that same time another friend mentioned his grandfather’s health had declined to the point where he had to be moved into a nursing home until his death.
In both instances the families were not well off. Probably the only major asset each had was their home. In both cases the homes passed to heirs upon the death of their owners, who died in nursing homes paid for by taxpayers.
Wednesday Links
- Biden Adm: 15 million people are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage, now that the public health emergency is ending. Five states have already started the removal process.
- Does the FDA do more harm than good? Peltzman revisited.
- Poll: Medicare eligible population likes the idea of more free stuff.
- David R. Henderson, reviews Deborah Birx’s new book.
- ChatGPT fails a sophomore economics exam.