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The other day a commenter recommended David Goldhill’s article on health care reform from the forthcoming Atlantic, and let me now do the same. It’s a long piece, and not easily excerpted, but absolutely worth reading carefully and in its entirety. Here’s a quick summary of what I take to be its most important points:
1. [...]
Filed under: economics, government/law, health care
Apparently they can:
Consumer-driven health (CDH) products [i.e., high-deductible health plans relying on HSAs or Health Reimbursement Arrangements to reimburse for qualified expenses] have been marketed in various forms since the early 2000s. While emerging data is [sic] not entirely conclusive, general directional conclusions can be drawn from the studies published to date. […]
With regard to [...]
Filed under: economics, health care
The central themes of this chapter are the nature of gift and gratuitousness, and what it means to have a market economy – whether domestic or global – built on love and ordered toward integral human development. A helpful way to think about this challenge is in terms of the distinction drawn in sec. 36 [...]
Filed under: Caritas in Veritate, economics, government/law, morality, reading groups, religion
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry has a very sharp post up at the Scene that drives home a point I’ve been making for a while now. I agree entirely with his conclusion:
One of the reasons I don’t think of myself as a libertarian even though they’re the group whose actual policy preferences most closely mirror mine is because [...]
Filed under: economics, libertarianism, morality, taxation
I suppose it’s around this point that George Weigel started going wild with his red pen.
Here’s an example of the kind of claims that have got free market critics rather up in arms about the message of this document:
Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both [...]
Filed under: Caritas in Veritate, economics, reading groups, religion
Via Henry Karlson, I see that one Daniel Indiviglio, of The Atlantic’s business channel, has up a post on Caritas in Veritate. Indiviglio is a Catholic who calls himself “knowledgeable about Catholic thought” and then admits to not having read the whole encyclical (“I have read a great deal of it, however” – well, good [...]
So everyone is blogging about this chart, which was pulled together by AEI’s Andrew Biggs:
The potential significance of these data for any number of common understandings of the factors behind rising medical costs is immediate, but – and speaking as a statistical ignoramus, so pillar of salt and all that – the way that they’re [...]
Filed under: economics, health care
The only parts of the Pope’s new encyclical that really matter are the ones that line up neatly with the Republican Party’s political agenda; all the rest is incomprehensible and quite possibly stupid.
Update: Freddy has a wonderfully nuanced discussion of Caritas in Veritate up on the main blog.
Update 2: This is truly brilliant.
In lieu of a proper post on the subject, let me just state baldly that it’s because of data like these that I’ve got precious little patience for the common complaint about organic produce, pastured meat and animal products, etc. being “too expensive” for the American family:
Meanwhile, here’s where our money is going instead:
[...]
by JL Wall
Just so we’re clear: Congress deciding to de-regulate an industry isn’t necessarily any more of a favor to major corporations than when they decide to increase regulation:
It still might not have passed without the decision by Philip Morris, the industry leader, to accept regulation. The company apparently believes it can thrive better under [...]