America is thought to have a market economy. Yet it is striking to consider all of the ways our health-care system prevents the market from solving our health-care problems.
Since most of the restrictions were created by Democratic legislation, it is tempting to view the liberation of health care as a Republican project. But there is no reason that it couldn’t be bipartisan. Here are several principles to guide reform.
With 10% inflation, the average family can expect to lose 7% of its lifetime income to government.
This is the startling conclusion of a first-ever study by Laurance Kotlikoff and Alan Auerbach and their colleagues. The sources of the loss: (1) large parts of the tax code are not inflation indexed, (2) those parts that are indexed are indexed with a lag, and (3) Social Security benefits and other entitlements are also indexed with a lag. Our fiscal system is so incredibly complex that it has been impossible to measure the overall effects of inflation before now. Given the 20 largest federal/state entitlements, all administered differently by 50 states, that gives us 1,000 fiscal systems– to say nothing of all the different tax regimes. Hats off to the economists who spent several years developing the model that could give us a reliable answer. See John Goodman’s explanation of the study at Forbes.
Why do employers (including government employers) and insurers mistreat enrollees with costly health care problems? When the New York Times describes the abuses, you are encouraged to believe that the blame rests with private insurance. In fact, the source of the problem is perverse incentives created by bad government policies. More.
Bad as the Trustees Report is, the reality is likely to be ever worse.
Source: James Capretta, AEI
Racism is the lowest form of collectivism. Ayn Rand once called it “barnyard collectivism.” Throughout history, it has usually been the handmaiden of every other form of collectivism. In the modern world, collectivists are no longer able to make a serious argument for economic collectivism (socialism, fascism, communism, etc.) So, they have resorted to identity politics instead. More.
Au pairs represent a potential solution to two huge problems: the high cost of child care and the high cost of elder care. Young European women get free room and board, some spending money and a chance to experience America. So why does the Biden administration want to price them out of the market? More.
Although he rarely talks about it, the most significant gift Donald Trump bequeathed to economic prosperity was deregulation. And the one sector that was deregulated more than any other was health care. Since Joe Biden has been re-regulating the economy, it’s hard to think of a starker contrast between the two leading presidential candidates this year – and it affects all aspects of health care. More
In the early 20th century, they called themselves “progressives.” Then, they were “liberals.” Now they are “progressives” again. Early on, they embraced racism and endorsed eugenics. Then they became advocates for civil rights. Now they endorse racism of a different sort – wokeness. If you had to the describe the distinguishing characteristic of modern liberalism, what would your answer be? John Goodman gives a novel answer. More
To get seniors to support Social Security reform, there are additional abuses that need correcting. These include: stopping the double taxation of senior income through the Social Security benefits tax, no longer forcing seniors to dissave, abolishing the Social Security earnings penalty, and ending taxation by inflation. More
March 23rd will mark the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, and it is now ten years since the creation of the Obamacare exchanges. There are three ways to look at Obamacare today: in terms of (1) what the Obama administration said it was about, (2) what policy wonks thought it was about, and (3) how it really works. More at my post at Forbes.