Linda Gorman from the Independence Institute (where I work), in a recent posting on John Goodman's Health Policy Blog, highlights a myth from the advocacy group Families USA being cited as facts in the current health care policy debate:Medicaid spending, the group says, creates jobs. By their reasoning, a law diverting the entire GDP of the United States to the Medicaid program would leave the U.S. awash in jobs. By contrast, the group claims the Bush administration's efforts to rein-in Medicaid spending will leave tens of thousands of people unemployed. Gorman quickly picks apart the assertion in four points, using a little fact-checking and basic economic analysis. First:Roughly speaking, for every four jobs created by spending, five … [Read more...]
Panning McCain’s Health Care Plan
Republican Presidential candidate John McCain was in town on Friday to lead a townhall discussion on his health care policy. Last week local health care guru Brian Schwartz previewed McCain's arrival with a lukewarm analysis of the candidate's plan to reform health care, summed up here:So this tax-credit idea, while sort of on target, is even more social engineering via tax policy, instead of undoing existing tax policy that has created the problem in the first place. Joshua Sharf, who saw the candidate in person, was left with a more favorable view of the tax credit proposal, but thought the good idea in McCain's policy was watered down with many bits of "nanny-state hectoring." Joshua also noted McCain's well-developed skills of … [Read more...]