When I was a new student in political economy we learned about the tragedy of the commons. The example often used is communal pastureland that herdsmen use to feed their livestock. If pasture is overgrazed the grass dies, but if short grass stems are left to regrow someone else may let their sheep overgraze and the same result occurs.
Category: Single-Payer/Medicare-for-All
Friday Links
- How Medicare Advantage works: “The plans look for unhealthy people who likely have been poorly served by the fee-for-service system. These people both have big payment multipliers attached to them and offer lots of opportunity for improving care and lowering costs.”
- How to reform the NIH.
- Covid lockdowns had almost no affect on the top students, but was devastating for those at the bottom.
- Cato’s suggestions for DOGE.
- The money donated to restore Notre Dame could instead have saved 47,500 lives from death by malaria – and maybe twice that number.
Monday Links
- Direct primary care for Medicaid.
- Senators demand release of NIH study on transgender care.
- Preauthorization denials: they are twice as high in Medicaid as they are in Medicare Advantage.
- Study: hospital upcoding in 2019 (relative to 2011 coding practices) was associated with $14.6 billion in hospital payments, including $5.8 billion from private health plans, $4.6 billion from Medicare, and $1.8 billion from Medicaid.
- Relative to employer small-group plans, Marketplace plans paid 6.9% lower doctor fees, 13.3% lower hospital fees, and were 26.3% lower outpatient prices.
Critics: Work Requirements for Medicaid Enrollment Off to a Slow Start
Republicans have wanted to tie welfare benefits to work requirements for many years. One such proposal is to require some form of work in return for Medicaid benefits. Democrats opposed such measures, with the Obama and Biden Administrations blocking most applications. George is the only state so far with work requirements tied to Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Critics argue that the program is boosting inefficiencies and slowing down enrollment in other welfare programs, like food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. In Georgia employment verification for Medicaid eligibility and enrollment has been slow.