- Study results: giving people money doesn’t make them less poor.
- The real Mark Twain.
- The official poverty rate doesn’t count IRA and 401(k) withdrawals as “income.”
- Why Republicans are having a problem cutting Medicaid spending. (NYT)
- Meta study finds that health insurance improves health. But the most rigorous of the reviewed studies came to the opposite conclusion.
- Cato reforms Medicaid (But nothing about making the program better for enrollees)
- David Friedman explains tariffs. (Best explanation I have seen.)
- Should SNAP (food stamps) regulate what people eat?
Category: News and Events
Saturday Links – 10 May 2025
Lowering the FMAP for the expansion population, applying per-capita caps to the entire Medicaid population, eliminating states’ ability to charge provider taxes, applying per-capita caps to the expansion population only, and repealing the Biden administration’s eligibility and enrollment rules.
would cut the federal deficit by as much as $710 billion, result in up to 8.6 million people losing Medicaid coverage and up to 3.9 million becoming uninsured.
- Essay: In practice, Medicaid work requirements are likely to be very loose, and to do little either to save taxpayers money or to oblige people to assume full-time employment.”
- Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General: the root causes of chronic disease is what we eat.
- Claim: “US dietary guidelines have made us ill.”
- Obamacare exchanges: younger people are overpaying so that older people can be undercharged.
- Just eliminating fraud would save the federal government $5T over ten years.
Are Drug Middlemen to Blame for High Drug Prices?
Over the years I have worked on projects defending the role of drug middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMs are essentially volume purchasers of drugs who manage drug benefits for insurers, Medicare, Medicaid, and health plans. PBMs negotiate deals with drug makers, wholesalers, and pharmacies. At least in theory, health plans benefit from the PBM’s buying power, getting most of the drug rebates and negotiated discounts PBMs arranged with drug makers.
Friday Links
- RFK Jr may be right about the dangers of antidepressants. (NYT)
- Food Stamp recipients: A mere 16% of able-bodied adults work 20 hours a week or more.
- “In sickness and in health” may not come true if the wife gets sick.
- Nearly 40% of the total population of New York and California is now on Medicaid.
- 90% of the top 30 brand-name drugs sold in the US are manufactured abroad.
- Middle incomes have not been stagnant: US median disposable income (including transfers) is the highest in the world.