Healthcare and Policy

No taxation without (some decent) representation

The focus on Federal taxes as a Robin Hood-type redistribution tends to focus on economic classes – is the middle class a winner or a loser, etc. Except, Representatives don’t represent classes. They represent states. And, looking at the redistributive effects of taxes on a state by state basis, the Republican party comes across as just a Continue reading →

March 31, 2018

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“Skinny repeal” of Obamacare is a bag of lemons

The skinny repeal was to do away with the individual mandate where individuals are required to buy health insurance or face penalties. It is a bag of lemons.

George Akerlov won the Nobel Prize in Economics for a paper he published in 1970 called “The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism”. In it he Continue reading →

March 31, 2018

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Healthcare is going to kill us all – a story in 5 simple graphs

I am not an expert on health care. But, the level of discourse across the political spectrum is uninformed even to me. And, incredibly disheartening, given how important it is to the country.

As I see it, there are two fundamental issues with healthcare. One is the size of the uninsured U.S. population. This was the Continue reading →

January 20, 2018

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The wall

Thinking back to a blog post from November 7, 2016

With the U.S. Presidential election less than a day away and talk of the “blue wall” being breached, it is worthwhile to revisit the original wall. As the topic will rear up post-election.

My daughter was in 2nd grade in the last academic year. The grade culminated with Continue reading →

January 20, 2018

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Graham-Cassidy health care bill was a big, bold … punt

One basic philosophy of the Graham-Cassidy bill was to provide decision making authority closer to where the impacts are felt, i.e., the states. Devolution of power is nice, but beware unintended consequences.

There are lots of decisions that states can make that create entirely different markets separated just by state borders. These differences could lead to migration of Continue reading →

January 20, 2018

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