Friday, June 30, 2017

Health Insurance Might not be Good for Everyone

Steve Randy Waldman‏ of interfluidity called this thread: Thread, counterintuitive and disheartening. (Here is Aaron Carroll saying that Medicaid access may not have increase opioid deaths and of course that Medicaid expansion may still net out positive.)

It could for a number of reasons be that the current western healthcare (beyond the basics that you do not need insurance to get) is not good for those at the low end of diligence, IQ, conscientiousness scales.

Here are some possible reasons why:
  • MD’s often do not explain enough and nobody follows up.
  • Protocols are sometimes too complicated and require too much attention. 
  • Opiates are too tempting.
  • etc. 

If true it could explain:
U.S. Age-Adjusted Mortality Rates per 100,000 (Annual, 2002–2015)

And BTW  on the opioid epidemic being deaths of despair:

New Hampshire has the second highest opiate death rate in the US.  Very good economy in NH. These epidemics come and go look more like viruses than anything caused by despair. 
So why would West Virginia be the leader in overdose deaths, because it has been loosing its best and brightest for a long time leaving a higher percent on the lower end of diligence, IQ, conscientiousness scales, the most susceptible.

Here is another thing I just came across on 11/30/2018, length of life is down for the third year in a row in 2018 just a few years after the final provisions of the PPACA (Obamacare) were enacted.


And there is this:
The effect of requiring consumers to obtain prescriptions for pharmaceuticals on mortality is examined for a sample of middle‐income countries. In countries enforcing the requirement, infectious disease mortality is no lower and poisoning mortality is higher than in those not enforcing the requirement. A broader measure of government intervention—public expenditures on health relative to GDP—is shown to have moderately adverse effects on overall life expectancy.
Note the last line (maybe I'm reading it wrong).
A broader measure of government intervention—public expenditures on health relative to GDP—is shown to have moderately adverse effects on overall life expectancy.

Related links:
The Amish and the marginal value of health care
The Amish and the marginal value of health care

Ironic Health Links 
Hanson on Health
Wealth and retirement might not be good for everyone!
Has Medicaid Made the Opioid Epidemic Worse?  
Exploring the Paradox of U.S. Hispanics' Longer Life Expectancy
This is related in that it's one reason that free Government health insurance might be bad for some people. Some people might be working longer because they want to maintain health insurance: Early Retirement May Be The Kiss Of Death, Study Finds

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