Media
Two Cheers for the Bipartisan Tax Deal
A rare bipartisan agreement in Congress would create a larger child tax credit for parents and extend some key business tax breaks in the 2017 (Trump) tax reform bill that have expired. Democrats are said to favor the former and Republicans the latter.
Opinions on the accord are all over the map, with pros and cons – both on the right and the left. I give it two cheers. If it were funded by reducing means-tested welfare spending, I would give it a third cheer.
What Are We Getting for All That Obamacare Spending?
Obamacare spending has now reached $214 billion a year, insuring people through Medicaid (which is mostly contracted out to private insurers) and the Obamacare exchanges. At $1,731 for every household in America, that’s a great deal of money being transferred from taxpayers to insurance companies every year.
So, what are we getting in return?
One scholarly study finds there has been no overall increase in health care utilization in the U.S. since the enactment of Obamacare. The number of doctor visits per capita actually fell over the last decade.
See my latest post at Forbes.
Can We Reduce Health Care Costs with Better Primary Care?
Washington Doesn’t understand Obamacare
In the House of Representatives, the GOP’s “number-one priority for health care reform” is lowering health insurance premiums. However, the vast majority of folks who buy their own insurance are getting hefty subsidies. So much so, that 8 in 10 enrollees in the exchanges pay $10 a month or less. For a family with average income, the premium is usually zero. More.
How the FDA Misled Us During the COVID Pandemic
COVID-19 is steadily attracting less attention, which is welcome news. Before we put the pandemic behind us, however, we should learn important lessons so we can avoid repeating mistakes. One catastrophic mistake is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) perpetrated misinformation that probably killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Unless steps are taken to rein in the FDA’s powers, similar results are likely to happen in the future.
Julian Simon, Vindicated Again
Each year, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has a dinner in Washington, D.C., honoring the economist Julian Simon, who died in 1998. Simon was a rare optimist in the fields of population and natural resources. He disagreed with most environmentalists of his day (especially in the 1980s through 1990s). They feared passionately that growing population would overwhelm agriculture and industry and that the world would run out of natural resources such as oil and minerals.
What Companies Using AI Need To Know About The Sam Altman Reshuffle
Turmoil is rocking the artificial intelligence industry. Business leaders developing an AI strategy should—in most but not all cases—continue as before the recent big news.
The board of OpenAI fired Sam Altman as CEO on November 17, and the company’s president, Greg Brockman, resigned soon after. Three days later, Microsoft announced, “Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft MSFT -1.2% to lead a new advanced AI research team.”
“60 Minutes” reveals startling discoveries about Social Security Administration
[DALLAS) November 6, 2023 — In a recent investigative report, CBS program "60 Minutes" shed light on a series of alarming practices within the Social Security administration, bringing to the forefront a myriad of concerning issues affecting beneficiaries across the...
ObamaCare Turns Out to Be Affordable Only for the Healthy
It was supposed to help those with pre-existing conditions, but they pay dearly for bad options.
Obamacare’s Dirty Little Secret
When Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act of 2010, President Obama and lawmakers made the same claim over and over: The act would make good, affordable health insurance available to people with pre-existing conditions. The actual result has been the opposite. Obamacare makes health insurance as good as possible for the healthy and as bad as possible for the sick.
From John Goodman’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal (Paid gateway)