Clik here to view.
The Human Cost of Ideology: Health, Medicaid and Conservatism
Medicaid is on the table again. This is good, and in principle so are the discussions related to costs and policy intentions. Nevertheless, my view is that too much of the conversation has been at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Human Cost of Ideology II
A Note about Causality In personal conversations about the previous post a couple people brought up reverse causality: states that are less healthy might tend toward conservatism. As I see it this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Human Cost of Ideology III
Is the AHDI v. Conservatism Model Reasonable? The previous post presented a linear model of the American Human Development Index versus conservatism. This is obviously a simplification of reality. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Human Cost of Ideology IV
Introduction Our environments of education, living, and work manifestly determine our health and are often referred to as Social Determinants of Health (SDH). The social determinants are in addition to...
View ArticleEntitlement, the Word
Paraphrasing Robert Lewis Stevenson from his essay, “Truth of Intercourse”, to tell the truth is to convey a true impression. At odds with this, the word `entitlement’ is sometimes used in a way that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Helpful Graph Related to the Federal Budget
A couple days ago Mike Konczal posted a Congressional Budget Office graph of Federal receipts and outlays relative to GDP, a graph, he wrote, we should “keep in mind about the current budget...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unemployment Statistics: A Closer Look
The context here is unemployment and educational attainment statistics, while the themes include the importance of a degree, how aggregating data can misinform, and trusting your lying eyes. Street...
View ArticleHold that Health Care Shibboleth
“We spend far more on health care than other peer countries yet have worse outcomes. Why is U.S. health care so expensive?” I’m sure you’ve encountered similar statements, maybe even expressed it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Fresh Look at Health Care Cost Growth
In this post I recast the visual display of international health care expenditures. For select OECD countries, this clearly shows the growth of average costs has been moderating while U.S. cost-growth...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Refusing to Expand Medicaid
Robert Pear wrote in the Times that the refusal by “states to expand Medicaid will leave millions of poor people ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance…” 1 Indeed, the refusals will do...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Update to Health Care Cost Growth
There is new OECD health care expenditure (HCE) data available so I’ve updated the cost-growth charts. The original post with discussion is here. The updated charts follow. First the difference chart...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Risk Pushed Down on Us
Within a day I was twice alerted to Bruce Schneier’s recent essay, “Our Newfound Fear of Risk.” Schneier meaningfully and regularly contributes on security issues. He deserves our appreciation....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Estimating County Health Care Costs in Washington State
Besides state and higher-level health care expenditures, county level HCE are useful, integral really. For example, to promote the Triple Aim (the best care for the whole population at the lowest cost)...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Flawed Happiness Research
Among the themes of the next few posts will be the idea of meaningfulness; is your life significant, does it have value. Pursuing the idea of meaningfulness led to my reading on happiness, not that I’m...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seniors, Loneliness and Isolation
This post is about loneliness and social isolation, especially with regard to seniors. Presented are noteworthy views, both conceptually and empirically, as well as some puzzlement. Definitions First...
View ArticleSenior Health Care Costs Connected to Loneliness
For more than 20 years organizations and policy makers looked for cost estimates associated with loneliness and social isolation. This summer a client wanted a sense of those costs. Using recent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When the Gini Index Is Redundant
The Gini Index as a measure of income inequality is redundant when using U.S. Census Bureau’s household income statistics, at least at the national and state levels. That Gini index is fully determined...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Ending a Health Care Fallacy
Introduction Here it’s argued that we need to retire the health care fallacy, “We spend more on health care than other rich countries but have worse outcomes.” The fallacy implies U.S. health care is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Right Path but the Wrong Direction
Get a good education, work hard, and good things will happen, that’s the American Dream. But it may be fading as we let stagnant earnings continue as they have. This post, which is about work,...
View Article
