A Dose Of Reality

I'm done bashing Republicans/Conservatives for the moment, and I'm on to re-posting things about how dumb Liberals can be. See here about the ACA as corporate bailout.

Baseball And Medicine

Moneyball and evidence-based medicine have some things in common.

Dumb, But Amusing

Putting aside the idiocy of the message behind it, I actually think "Owebama" is kinda clever. Yeah, that's a lot to put aside. It does frustrate me that the debt is only an issue to the Right when a Democrat is in office, but then again, it frustrates me that the debt is an issue at all. 

This came up in the context of the nontroversy about the $716 billion that the ACA cuts from MediCare. Never mind the internal inconsistency of calling a President who cuts almost three quarters of a trillion out of the budget "Owebama," the idea that this means the Dems are hostile to MediCare, and the Republicans are going to "save" it is farcical. But keeping a consistent viewpoint and not just reacting on a purely partisan, emotional level is not really most folks' bag, or so the Intertubes keep trying to tell me.

Life Expectancy

[via LG&M comment section]

It isn't exactly what some would have you think.

Hayek On Healthcare

Excuse the ultra-lazy re-post. Who is Friedrich Hayek? Read here.

“Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist the individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance – where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks – the case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong… Wherever communal action can mitigate disasters against which the individual can neither attempt to guard himself nor make the provision for the consequences, such communal action should undoubtedly be taken,” – The Road To Serfdom (Chapter 9).

 I miss non-crazy Conservatives.

Things That Make Me Sad

The individual mandate was a right-wing idea.

Obama could propose we follow Saint Raygun's policies to the letter*, and he'd be branded a Socialist. These people have no shame.

* An argument could probably be made that in toto, Obama has been to the right of Reagan. At least in some respects, such as civil liberties, this is not really debatable.

Health Care Is Not A Commodity

I have seen a number of "let the free market run naked in the yard and nature will take its course"-type arguments about heath care. The main problem is, health care doesn't fit the traditional definition of a commodity. I don't want the government involved in the business of making things. But health care doesn't fit into the model that shows that market forces are best at allocating resources.

Please see this rather academic pdf for an explanation. Krugman weighs in here.

The ACA: Constituional

This does not mean the SCOTUS will uphold it, given the makeup of the Court. But, I think this analysis is spot-on.

Stupid Facts, Always Ruining The Narrative

Canada does not have a perfect system. I'm not even sure I'd want to model American single-payer on it. But, because it serves certain peoples' interests and/or ideology, we get a lot of bullshit about Canadian health care. I found the article below interesting.