John Goodman’s Commentaries

Could everyone in America live above the poverty line if only employers were less greedy? Bernie Sanders thinks that. He also thinks that Medicaid, Food Stamps and other poverty programs are subsidizing corporate greed — because they make it possible for employers to pay low wages. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) calls the federal minimum wage of $2.13 an hour for people with tip income “indentured servitude.” What’s her answer? The government should force employers to be more generous.

In one case, an insurer prevented a woman from getting a CT scan her doctor ordered. In another, a mother couldn’t afford the full regimen of special bags needed to clear her cancer-stricken daughter’s lungs. In a third case, a woman lost her health insurance and could not afford end-of-life chemotherapy. These examples come from National Nurses United, the country’s largest nurses’ union. To prevent further incidents like these, the union favors a universal, government-run health care system. A lead editorial in the New York Times last week appeared to endorse their thinking. Here is what these folks are missing.

At first glance you might think that the Democratic presidential campaign is boiling over with one new idea after another. Free health care. Free education. No more carbon emissions. There have been so many pronouncements, it’s hard to keep track of them. But that’s just at first glance. If you delve deeper, you will discover these are not ideas at all. They are feelings. Strongly held feelings, mind you. But feelings, nonetheless.

Employers are paying hospitals more than twice as much as what Medicare pays. At some hospitals they are paying four times as much. So, who’s to blame? John Goodman says employers are to blame.

No other savings vehicle can top an HSA. Not a 401(k) plan. Not an IRA. Not even a Roth IRA. For starters, deposits to an HSA escape both income and payroll taxes. That can’t be said of the other three options. During the retirement years, health expenses are going to be larger than what most people realize. HSA withdrawals can be used to pay premiums for Medicare Part B, Part C and Part D, as well as any out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Accountable Care Organizations are President Obama’s attempt at stealth privatization — 10.4 million people think they are in a fee-for-service system, when in reality their doctors have economic incentives to reduce care. And it has been illegal for doctors to inform their patients of this fact. John Goodman and Laurence Wedekind explain the development and what Medicare director Seema Verma is doing about it.

Senior citizens are discriminated against by a number of unwise public policies.

The Cato Institute hosted a celebration of a book John Goodman and Gerald Musgrave a quarter a century ago. Commenters included Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD, (R-LA); Paul B. Ginsburg, Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies, Brookings Institution; and David A. Hyman, Coauthor, Overcharged; Professor of Law, Georgetown University; and Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute.

If AOC is the voice of the left, New York Times writer Paul Krugman is its brain. But here is the catch. Krugman rarely ever attempts to introduce readers to the economic way of thinking. Day after day, in column after column, he reinforces the view that left-wingers don’t need to read textbooks or study economic models. Their gut instincts will do just fine.