Breaking a three-day stalemate, the Senate approved an amendment to its health care legislation that would require insurance companies to offer free mammograms and other preventive services to women.
The vote was 61 to 39, with three Republicans joining 56 Democrats and the two independents in favor.
This happened directly [...]
In America today, for every problem, a national "solution" is proposed, regardless of how individual or local the issues are. Whether we consider housing, education, energy, transportation, finance, labor markets, the automobile industry or the current attempted takeover of the health care and insurance industries, we are overwhelmed with ever [...]
And since Turkey Day-related overeating or reckless wielding of a carving knife or straining your voice yelling for (or at) your favorite football team could result in [...]
Who does health care reform affect? Charles Kroncke and Ronald White organize individuals into the following four major stakeholder groups:
First-party patients. The patients who seek care. Second-party providers. These include hospitals, physicians, nurses, physical therapists, dentists, and pharmaceutical companies. Third-party payers. The payers are generally either private insurance companies or government programs [...]Matthew Yglesias writes:
Matthew Yglesias: Blanche Lincoln, Racing Horse: Blanche Lincoln has emerged as one of the pivotal votes in the US Senate debate about health care reform. So an article about her and her role in the debate seems like a smart thing for a newspaper to run. [...]
But bad news for the American press. Ezra Klein and Stan Collender pile on to David Broder. Each day the Washington Post publishes David Broder is another day of humiliation for serious journalists working for the Post, for Newsweek, etc.--and also a day of humiliation for all those working for [...]
THE health care reform debate has produced plenty of interesting commentary on the economics of health care, but perhaps more interesting [...]
The CMS’ Office of the Actuary estimates the impact of the House health care reform bill on insurance coverage 10 years in the future:
One can see that the number of uninsured drops dramatically, but there will still be over 20 million Americans without [...]
OK, you're right. The debate's been going on for years.
But the official, formal, legislative debate on Capitol Hill, specifically in the Senate, will go forward, thanks to Saturday night's vote.
The House passed its $1 trillion health bill two weeks ago. Senate leaders hope to get a [...]
It's buried in the health care bill. We think it has teeth--and the Congressional Budget Office agrees:
Ezra Klein - Health-care reform's grand bargain: This is how health-care reform controls costs. It is, at its base, a grand bargain: The coverage expansion gets liberals to agree to, and even [...]
Systemic risk oversight is on tap up on the Hill. (Though you wouldn’t know it with all the health care talk.) The House is laying the groundwork for a new division of Treasury called the "Financial Services Oversight Council" to monitor systemic risk. The Senate Banking Committee is going to [...]
Here’s a case study.
On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.”
The [...]
Economist Tsung-Mei Cheng has developed three Universal Laws of Health Care Systems. These are:
No matter how good the health care in a particular country, people will complain about it. No matter how much money is spent on health care, the doctors and hospitals will argue it is not enough. The last reform always failed.Source: [...]
Do you have a flexible savings account? Are you planning on claiming medical expenses as an itemized deduction? What about your workplace insurance plan; is it relatively expensive coverage?
Then you'll face some costs in the Senate's humongous health care reform bill.
I'm not kidding about the size, both [...]
Only in the hallowed halls of Congress could the notion of spending vastly higher amounts of money convince so many that the net result will be a reduction in spending. But such is the conceit with the new health care bill being hammered out these days.
The new legislation to [...]
Of young health reform supporters and old empires
I PRESENT two outstanding graphical presentations of data, for your enjoyment. First, from the New York Times, a look at support for health care reform across two critical variables:And second, via Paul Kedrosky, a videographic on the (recent) history of empire:Bonus [...]
The best of the rest of the economics web
TODAY'S recommended economics writing:• Say's Law in China—is it really so crazy to build a big empty city? (Scott Sumner) • Economists on some key principles for health care legislation (but why'd they send the letter to the president?). (Economix) [...]
In my last post on recent discussions in the Mises Institute Forum, I highlighted the "ardor for erudition" among Forum members. However, the Forum's gaze is not only drawn to timeless truths and aureate authors. Hot-button issues are also given their due.
Regarding such issues, there are a [...]
There are advantage to universal standards. The most important is economies of scale–once you learn the standard, it applies everywhere. But the disadvantages are subtle and usually much greater than the advantages.
I don’t want a single standard of health care, one standard of what’s “best.” Everyone is different and what [...]
