Benjamin Zycher

So there we have it. “Underinsurance” means an allocation of risk between the insured and the pool (the insurer) that is not gold-plated from the viewpoint of the former. And the rather obvious increase in premiums needed to reduce the “underinsurance” problem? That discussion seems to have been left on ...

Someone, anyone, please tell me where these rigorous thinkers have been for the last few decades. Actually, they seem to recognize how silly their argument is when they point out several paragraphs below that “with [an individual mandate], the nation’s bill could be spread more broadly . . . ” ...

But . . . no. Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, ACORN’s gotta engage in fraud, and Obama’s gotta talk. It’s really that simple; and it is amazing, given how little this guy actually knows about economics, about foreign affairs, about, well, just about anything. This reminds me of a ...

Without the individual mandate, insurance “reform” — no constraints on coverage created by pre-existing medical conditions, and a necessary corollary, price controls in health coverage — would be hugely popular politically. But those two policies would yield a rapid destruction of the private insurance market (for nonemployer policies) because of ...

Most of the ongoing halftime “analysis” by the journalists is beside the point. The private health insurance sector is about to be destroyed — apparently with the acquiesence of those pro-market, pro-free enterprise, pro-capitalism Republicans — with regulations mandating that pre-existing conditions not be used to deny coverage, that insurance ...

And then there is the grand finale, the intellectual coup de grace, the crowning glory of KrugmanThink: “Given the combination of G.O.P. extremism and corporate power, it’s now doubtful whether health reform, even if we get it — which is by no means certain — will be anywhere near as ...

Precisely how has Big Phrma done that? Well, there are about 6 or 7 million people eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare — “dual eligibles” in Beltwayspeak — and they were shifted from Medicaid to Medicare Part D for their drug needs when Part D was implemented. (This made the ...

Now, I read the New York Times only infrequently; but someone, anyone, please tell me that this is not the best that it has to offer. Whom does the reporter think he’s kidding? What possible course will the federal bureaucracy pursue when limited resources meet metastasizing demands? Obviously, one early ...