The White Man's Burden: Drugs, Drinking, Suicides Up Since 2000

More nonsense has been written about white nationalism/supremacy in the wake of Donald Trump’s election than anyone should have to read. So, it is a pleasure to find some actual data analysis on the role of the non-college educated white citizen in the success of the Trump candidacy, especially versus Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 campaign.

The Economist has determined health status explains the Trump vote better than being a non-college educated white citizen does. The sicker you are, the more likely you are to have voted for Trump. Non-college educated whites are also likely to be sicker, so the two variables are not independent. Nevertheless:

Health Status Related to Income Not Insurance

An extremely thorough analysis of changes in incomes and mortality in the United States, 2001 through 2014 presents some sobering conclusions for those who think fixing our health system will make us healthier. The research, let by Raj Chetty of Stanford University, ran data on incomes and mortality through a battery of statistical tools.

The latest research demonstrates how important incomes are to health status. Forty-year old men in households in the highest quartile of income (mean = $256,000 annually) had an average life expectancy just under 85 years in 2001. This increased by 0.20 years (a little over ten weeks) by 2014. For those in the lowest quartile ($17,000), life expectancy was about 76 years in 2001, and it only increased 0.08 years (a little over four weeks) by 2014.

Obamacare is likely to accelerate this gap, because it significantly reduces incentives for people in low-income households to increase their incomes.

Read more at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.

Obamacare's Most Popular "Patient Protection" Is Why Patients Can't Get Paid For Saving The System Money

Last Monday, I posed the rhetorical question “Why Can’t Patients Get Paid for Saving the System Money?” and gave some examples, such as Medicare’s competitive bidding for durable medical equipment and incentives offered by Medicare Advantage plans, demonstrating how rules inhibit patients’ ability to participate more fully in forming prices and controlling costs.

The primary reason for such rules is to compensate for Obamacare’s most popular provision: Prohibition against medical underwriting, so that sick and healthy patients of the same age pay the same premiums.

Read the entire column at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.

Best News Yet for ObamaCare: Recessions May Be Good for Your Health!

Yours truly at National Review Online.