Monday, February 14, 2022

Gruber Video on Healthcare


Gruber video on healthcare.

He starts with the difference in white and black infant mortality and blames it on healthcare access, but he ignores that a black baby born in the USA at 31 week of gestation or less is more likely to survive than a white baby at the same gestation.  See table 2 page 9 here.

Hispanic babies have about the same survival rates as white babies.
USA babies survive to 1 month as much as EU born babies.
It does not look like healthcare.

Also there are important differences between a tax and health insurance premium.

BTW According the US census, at over 90 years (see table 103) so it does not look like overall differences in life expectancy are mostly due to access to healthcare. Also the 8 America's study would give a little evidence of that also.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Scott Sumner's most Right Wing Positions

I love them all: 

Scott Sumner's most Right Wing Positions

Once we have CBDCs, my anti-FDIC view will no longer be my most right wing opinion. And after Covid, I’m not sure my abolish the FDA view is all that right wing. Abolish the public school system? The teachers unions are already hard at work on that objective. Abolish zoning laws and allow nuclear waste dumps right next to residential housing? Heck, even Matt Yglesias seems sorta OK with that idea. Abolish the minimum wage? Some of the Nordic countries don’t even have one. Privatize fire departments? Denmark got there first.