Tag: "seniors"

Recessions Are Good for Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are chronically understaffed in times of economic prosperity. But…a one percent increase in unemployment sees full time employment in nursing facilities rise three times as fast. After a recession, when the economy picks back up and jobs become available again, low skilled workers abandon nursing homes jobs’ low pay and even fewer accolades for better prospects. The shift of workers in and out of nursing jobs drives the swings in the national death rate and underscores the importance of these under-appreciated jobs.

A look at the relationship between economic downturns and health outcomes in the United States reveals a complex picture: harm from lost insurance and increased anxiety but better care for the elderly. These two trends coexist because, while harm concentrates in working age people, retirees reap the majority of the benefit.

Neal Emery in The Atlantic. HT: Tyler Cowen.

Nov 28, 2012 | 9 comments | by

Did the Election Save ObamaCare?

The morning after Tuesday’s vote, there is one thing every commentator agreed on. The election of Barack Obama guaranteed that his signature piece of legislation — health reform — can now go forward. Republicans are powerless to stop it.

Yet there is something all these commentators are overlooking. There are six major flaws in ObamaCare. They are so serious that the Democrats are going to have to perform major surgery on the legislation in the next few years, even if all the Republicans do is stand by and twiddle their thumbs.

Here is a brief overview.

But can you save me
Come on and save me

Nov 12, 2012 | 25 comments | by

HHS Agrees to Pay for Unnecessary Care

How many times have we been told that ObamaCare would usher in a new age of evidence-based medicine? Well, that idea was short lived.

Should the federal government cover the costs of many kinds of treatments for patients who aren’t going to get any better?

It didn’t, for many years. But after the settlement of a landmark class-action lawsuit this week, Medicare will soon begin paying more often for physical, occupational and other therapies for large numbers of people with certain disabilities and chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Oops. I almost forgot. Wellness checkups for seniors are an example of unnecessary care actually written into the legislation. Ah, yes…and there is all that unnecessary preventive care…

Entire article on the treatment of “hopeless” patients in the NYT.

Nov 06, 2012 | 11 comments | by

Rhode Island’s Medicaid Block Grant

To date, Rhode Island projects that by various new measures — focusing on community-based care that keeps seniors out of expensive nursing homes, for instance, and medical supervision that can keep children and adults out of emergency rooms — the state has saved $100 million. The flexibility to plan care has also helped reduce its projected Medicaid spending rate to 3% from 8% annually.

More on the broken Medicaid safety net in the WSJ.

Oct 26, 2012 | 11 comments | by

Commonwealth Misses — Again

The Kaiser study claims that a Medicare “premium support” plan — that the authors claim resembles the plan offered by Representative Paul Ryan and Democratic senator Ron Wyden — would drive up costs on seniors by hundreds of dollars per month. Conveniently, the Kaiser release provides helpful state-by-state numbers so reporters can pull out premium-hike estimates in critical swing states.

There are three problems with the study. First, it doesn’t analyze anything close to the Ryan-Wyden plan. Second, its methodology is biased against the benefits of competition and consumer choice. And, third, if there were any conclusion to be drawn from the data used to produce the study, it’s that Representative Ryan has been right all along in saying that private plans have the capacity to dramatically reduce costs for Medicare — without shifting costs onto any seniors… [U]nder Ryan-Wyden, future enrollees into the program — those who have not yet enrolled in any Medicare option — would be guaranteed at least two options that would cost no more than what current Medicare would require. So, under Ryan-Wyden, no senior — present or in the future — would ever have to pay more than they do today for Medicare. Period…According to the data used by Kaiser, private plans can in fact deliver the guaranteed Medicare benefit package at lower cost than Medicare FFS in large portions of the country

James Capretta at the National Review Online.

Oct 18, 2012 | 9 comments | by

Why Parasites May be Good for You

Your great-grandparents faced infectious diseases that hardly threaten you today: tuberculosis, polio, cholera, malaria, yellow fever, measles, mumps, rubella, smallpox, typhoid, typhus, tapeworm, hookworm…But there’s also a long list of modern illnesses that your great-grandparents barely knew: asthma, eczema, hay fever, food allergies, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis. The coincidence of the rise in these “inflammation” diseases, characterized by an overactive immune system, with the decline of infection is almost certainly not a coincidence.

Matt Ridley in the WSJ.

Sep 28, 2012 | 9 comments | by

It’s Better To Be Old in America

Despite a Think Progress report that uses a data bait and switch in order to make good news look bad, Think Progress reports on about a big reduction in deaths from heart disease and stroke in the U.S. and the resulting increase in life expectancy of Americans over 65:

 According to a government report about the well-being of older Americans, today’s 65-year-olds can expect to live longer — to age 85, compared to 79 in 1980 — and healthier than previous generations. Deaths from heart disease and stroke have dropped almost 50 percent, which has helped to increase the average life expectancy for Americans.

And then strives to make the good news look bad:

…a dozen developed nations had longer life expectancies than America’s. Even though the U.S. and Japan had about equal life expectancies 30 years ago, Japanese citizens live about four years longer — to 89 — on average than Americans.

What Think Progress doesn’t mention is that demographic studies suggest that the shorter U.S. life-expectancy probably results from higher mortality in those under age 65. Higher mortality under age 65 is affected by many factors, including accident rates, homicide rates among the inner city poor, data artifacts like those that produce the spuriously high U.S. infant mortality rankings, differences in deleterious personal behaviors like smoking, overweight, or alcoholism, and the quality and availability of medical care.

Aug 31, 2012 | 5 comments | by

Ten Myths about Mediscare

If you like public policy, this is potentially an ideal time to have a serious national discussion about the future of Medicare. What we are getting instead is something akin to school yard taunts. The worst thing you can say about Mitt Romney and Medicare is that he is confused. The best thing you can say about Barack Obama is that he has trouble with the truth.

Here is my prediction. Seniors are not going to be fooled by sound bites and smears. They really are going to figure this out. And it’s not going to be good for President Obama.

They’re in my Forbes column. Read ‘em and weep.

Aug 24, 2012 | 13 comments | by

Why Does ObamaCare Rob Medicare to Create a New Entitlement for Young People?

Avik Roy examines the case for the defense and finds it wanting:

Excuse #1. Paul Ryan’s GOP budget did it too.

Excuse #2. ObamaCare’s Medicare cuts don’t harm seniors’ health benefits.

Excuse #3. ObamaCare cuts wasteful spending from the Medicare Advantage program.

Excuse #4. The Romney plan for Medicare is worse, because it would shift costs to seniors.

Aug 17, 2012 | 8 comments | by

What if Social Security Were Run Like Medicare?

Medicare and Social Security are often tied together as the two great pillars of America’s commitment to the well being of our seniors. But, in fact the two programs could hardly be more different.

Medicare is vastly complicated, paying directly for the health care services of some 50 million people and contracting with hundreds of thousands of health care providers. It fixes the prices paid for every service delivered and prohibits any charges above those prices. “Balance billing” is forbidden. Medicare decides what is and is not an appropriate service for coverage purposes, and is increasingly directing providers on how they must provide the services for which they are paid. Other than some strictly defined supplemental insurance, Medicare is a monopoly insurer.

Aug 03, 2012 | 18 comments | by
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