Warren’s cagey health plan
People on the left have been debating Elizabeth Warren’s health plan since it was released a couple of weeks ago—“realistic” or a ruse? I vote ruse, but I don’t want to make that argument myself right now. Instead, I’ll allow a research note from Barclay’s, which found its way into my inbox, do that work. Here’s the opening paragraph of the report, by Barclay’s analyst Steve Valiquette: Compared to her previous hardline stance on M4A, the new plan represents a significant change in tone, in our view. Not only does the transition plan… Read More
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): June 27, 2019 Natalie Shure, author of this article, on what the skyrocketing price of insulin is doing to diabetics • Aaron Medlin, co-author of this paper, on young adults in the job market • Ken Silverstein, proprietor of Washington Babylon, on the reeking worlds of DC journalism and think-tankery
Fresh audio product
Just posted to my radio archive (click on date for link): September 21, 2017 Michael Lighty of CNA/NNU on Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, and on Sanders’ single-payer bill • Natasha Lennard, author of this article, on felony prosecution of Standing Rock protesters
Fresh audio product
Just posted to my radio archive: March 16, 2017 Steffie Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program on Ryancare, Obamacare, and the prospects for single-payer • Cinzia Arruzza on the women’s strike
More companies dropping health coverage, thanks to Obamacare
Back in 2011, I argued that Obamacare would lead employers to drop existing health insurance coverage and throw employees onto the mercies of the exchanges. (See this post and links therein.) Liberals, including no less than Paul Krugman, denied this. But it’s looking like it’s happening. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart, that paragon of the modern employer, is dropping coverage for 30,000 part-time employees. It joins Target, Home Depot, and UPS, who’ve already cut coverage. And, at the high end, the so-called “Cadillac tax” on generous insurance plans is also leading to… Read More
Workers with crappy health coverage now facing none at all
My Facebook friend Lara Shepard-Blue, a union organizer in Western Massachusetts, just posted this grim bit of news: The contract covering 42,000 Stop & Shop workers in MA, CT and RI expired last night with no agreement. The problem is the company’s Obamacare-prompted proposal to eliminate medical insurance and prescription coverage for part-timers. Because caps on coverage aren’t allowed under Obamacare and the current plan for PTers has a $20K cap, they say the cost of coverage for part-timers will increase to the same cost as for full-timers when this part of… Read More
Yeah, lots of employers are going to evade health coverage
Back in the summer of 2011, McKinsey released results of a survey they’d done of employers showing that many would not offer health insurance coverage when Obamacare* takes full effect. The liberal establishment united in loud criticism of the consulting firm’s report—but it’s looking like they were right. I wrote up the original report (“Bye-bye employer health insurance”) and experienced some of the loud criticisms, prompting a follow-up (“McKinsey: more right than wrong”) based on reading the full survey, something that some of the critics, including apparently Paul Krugman, hadn’t done. Ah,… Read More
McKinsey was mostly right (cont.)
When McKinsey released its survey showing that many employers were likely to drop coverage rather than comply with the mandates of Obamacare, there was a round of criticism from administration apologists saying the consultancy had gotten it all wrong. Even this august blog was hammered for credulously circulating corporate propaganda, or something like that, by reporting the study (Bye-bye employer health insurance) and declaring its findings “more right than wrong.” Paul Krugman, who is often critical of the Obama administration, nonetheless got into the act, criticizing McKinsey using some second-hand sources— thereby making it clear… Read More
Krugman’s lazy apologia
Paul Krugman can’t stop attacking the McKinsey survey. His filed his latest apologia this morning (“McKinsey Pulls Back the Curtain”). It’s not his finest moment. He dismisses the report as a mere “poll,” which is presumably a less reliable thing than the economic models that everyone else has been using. But why should a detailed survey—over 50 questions asked of over 1,300 respondents, mostly decision-makers—be less reliable than statistical extrapolations from not very comparable historical data? Krugman quotes a stat from a Time reporter, Kate Pickert—not from the original document, curiously—with what… Read More
McKinsey: more right than wrong
Administration apologists, from the White House official blog to Paul Krugman (“McKinseyGate”), have all lined up to denounce the McKinsey survey I wrote up here the other day (“Bye-bye employer health insurance”). McKinsey found that a large share of employers who now offer health insurance benefits will drop them once ObamaCare comes into effect in 2014. At first, McKinsey didn’t release the questions or the methodology, prompting reactions like Krugman’s: It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the study was embarrassingly bad — maybe it was a skewed sample, maybe the questions… Read More
Bye-bye employer health insurance
McKinsey is out with the results of a survey of 1,300 employers (How US health care reform will affect employee benefits), and the lead finding is a shocker: a third or more are likely to drop health insurance coverage for their workers as Obamacare takes effect. Clearly, not all bosses fully understand the economics of the new health insurance universe. Right now, 30% of respondents to McKinsey’s survey “will definitely or probably stop offering ESI in the years after 2014”—but 50% of those with “high awareness of reform” will do so. (The… Read More
Lots of new stuff on LBO website
Freshly posted to the LBO website, five articles from recent issues. If you’d been a subscriber, you’d have seen these already—and a lot more. But it’s never too late to sign up, if you haven’t already: LBO subscription info. The articles: Beastly numbers How do you explain educational outcomes? Poverty, mostly. What a damn mess Just how bad does this economy suck? Real bad. 2009: income down, poverty up, more uninsured income & poverty in the U.S. Charter to nowhere Do charter schools work, and if so, for whom? Old world, new crisis The EU melodrama
LBO News from Doug Henwood 
Posted on September 16, 2010 by Doug Henwood
Radio commentary, September 15, 2010
[Been a while since I posted one of these. Too many things to do, too little time. Sorry. Much more, including graphs, in the forthcoming LBO.] Thursday morning brought the release of the Census Bureau’s annual income, poverty, and health insurance numbers. These are drawn from a special edition of the Bureau’s monthly Current Population Survey. The regular survey, which covers about 60,000 households, is what the monthly unemployment figures, among other things, are based on. This special survey, done every March, covers 100,000 households. This is a very large sample, though… Read More