This is not a good bye. I will be writing here at Balloon Juice until either y’all run me off or I get bored writing about health policy for a broad public audience.
I am starting my doctoral program at the Duke University Department of Population Health Sciences at the end of the month. I’ll be on the Health Services Research track with a focus on policy implementation. I, as you can all guess, am utterly fascinated by the ACA and will likely be writing about that a whole lot more for my eventual dissertation.
I’ve written a lot. Since September 2013, I have written 2,213 health policy posts and 550 posts on other topics. This averages out to be slightly more than one health policy post per work day for eight years straight. In addition to Balloon Juice, I’ve had an active research and public dissemination role. I have had over twenty peer review articles published or accepted and I’ve been actively writing public facing commentary in a half dozen forums including the New York Times, The Conversation and Health Affairs Blog.
Researchers routinely estimate that most people have the capacity to do three to four hours of intense cognitive work per day. A Balloon Juice post consumes some of my daily high quality attention. I am and have been over-committed for the past two years. I have another dozen peer reviewable manuscripts somewhere in pipeline. They range from an R&R I need to finish by Labor Day to a second, non-shitty draft that I owe a co-author by the end of the month. Between the peer review pipeline that I had committed to before I was accepted into my doctoral program and actually studying and writing for my doctorate, I need to be more deliberate when and where I allocate my limited high quality attention.
I am not sure what this actually means beyond I don’t expect to be writing four or five health policy and research dissemination posts per work week which has been my typical pace.
I know two things.
First, Balloon Juice has been an amazing community and environment for me to grow. I truly appreciate all of the Jackals. Secondly, I still find tremendous value in writing here as it allows me to grapple with ideas through the act of writing and explaining. If I can not explain things well, I don’t understand what is being argued. This is an incredible place where I can go deep into the weeds and wrassle with weird and useful things. I think having a place where I can continue to do that will be something that I will continue to deeply value. And I hope that my public struggling with policy relevant details is valuable to at least some of you every time that I write.
I am not sure how often I’ll be writing or in what form I will be writing at Balloon Juice once I start my classes. I’m taking the next couple of weeks off to go hammer-throw my kids and nieces into a lake and then heading off to orientation. When I am in the middle of nowhere, I will hopefully figure out what I’ll be doing here at Balloon Juice even as I’m beginning my journey through a doctoral program in population health.
Baud
You deserve a break. I’m sure Cole can get Richard Mayhew to come back to take up the slack.
raven
Fair winds. . .
japa21
Glad you’re going to stick around.
Fair Economist
We’ll miss the posts we don’t get from you but I totally understand the time limitations when working on a PhD. Looking forward to seeing more of your writing in the peer reviewed literature.
PSpain
David, take a well deserved rest and recharge for the Fall Semester. I always read and enjoy your posts.
I find it difficult to hammer throw my kids, overhead start is hard with old shoulders, but if I hold them by the ankles and do more of a discus spin they go much further.
Elizabelle
Better not be a goodbye! Have a good vacay. You will figure it out. You always do. Cheers.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Best of luck. Lord knows you’re well prepared for a graduate program. But do keep in touch.
satby
@Baud: Yeah, I was thinking that too. Get that Mayhew guy to fill in!
Edit: all the best David!
gbbalto
David, thank you very much for all the work you have put into helping us understand health insurance issues. I don’t know much but I know I would know a lot less without your help.
Best of luck with the PhD program!
lowtechcyclist
I’d say “good luck in grad school,” David, but it’s hard to think about someone more over-prepared for it than you are.
For most people, being in a Ph.D. program is two things: first, you learn what’s already known in your projected area of research, and second, you get your initial experience with original research and publication.
Since you’ve already been publishing like crazy, it’s always seemed to me that there should be a way where an appropriate institution of higher learning could just hand you the academic credential that you’ve largely moved beyond. But academia being what it is, of course there isn’t one.
So have fun in grad school! You’ll kick ass there. But since you’ll still have to actually do the work and stuff, of course that’s going to be a time sink, there’s no way around that. So write here when you have the time and motivation, and don’t feel guilty about being a lot less present than you’ve been. And have a great vacation between now and orientation!
HinTN
Thank you for using this place to wrassle your ideas into form. From Mayhem to Doctor of Philosophy right here! We’ve been blessed.
Nicole
Oh, well fine, just abandon us then, future DOCTOR Anderson!
(Seriously, though, have a great vacation with your family and I swear, I don’t know how you manage to do everything you do as it is! We’ll enjoy whatever participation in the site you’re able to do and the PhD program is lucky to have you)
zhena gogolia
Good luck — I hope this is a really rewarding new stage of life. We have been blessed to have you here.
Spanky
Oh shit! He’s leaving!
But seriously, folks, I never understood how you managed the blistering pace you’ve maintained all these years. I imagine you tried to follow Anne Laurie’s example.
Go forth and recreate! And if you only post here once a week or so, we’ll live with that.
Steeplejack
What Baud said. And thanks for all your informative posts over the years. Hope to see you around, albeit less frequently.
Mudbrush
You’re a really good writer and patient explainer. Thank you for the health insurance/health policy master class!
Low Key Swagger
You had time to have kids? Seriously thanks and best of luck.
RSA
Yeah. 20 peer-reviewed publications is enough for tenure in most fields (though I’ve heard of a few where large publication numbers are more common).
rikyrah
So happy for you ☺️
They are so lucky to get a student of your caliber.
Just go soar ??????
planetjanet
You are a member of the family and are welcome any time. You have greatly improved my understanding of health care and provided an immeasurable service. Good luck with you new endeavors and take good care of yourself.
Brad F
David
Your blog is a daily must-read for me. Your insights on aspects of health policy are unique and invaluable. Two thoughts:
1) when i was in grad school the material i was learning was new, got me thinking, and if i had a forum to vet ideas, especially for papers and projects, I would have jumped all over it. Don’t count the blog out for both informing the masses and assisting you to serve your own interests and classwork.
2) I would pay for your blog. Hah, so there. Charge us. You can buy more coffee when you burn the midnight oil.
Keep up the great work no matter where you do it!!
Brad
Bluegirlfromwyo
My knowledge of health insurance skyrocketed because of you. It’s been invaluable as I help my self-employed stepson navigate his options. I can’t thank you enough.
Bounce publication or dissertation material off us anytime!
David Anderson
@RSA: Yeah, except for having an independent self-sustaining funding base, I would be a very plausible tenure candidate at plenty of not bad at all schools right now
Getting that independent, self-sustaining funding base is a whole lot more likely (still not guaranteed!!!) with three letters at the end of my name than without those letters. This is one of my major motivations for the doctorate — I want as much professional autonomy as possible and the combination of the additional education, peer network effects and credentialling of a PhD should dramatically increase the probability that I have that autonomy going forward compared to not doing that.
Mary G
I hope Claire is well enough to be hammer thrown, whatever that is.
You had me at the “healthcare executives need hookers and blow” explanation early on in your Mayhew days.
I haven’t commented much on your posts, but I do read them until you break out math, tables, and charts.
I’m glad you may be able to sneak in a few ruminations at the blog once in a while and that your voice is heard ever more louder and wider in the national discourse. Your expertise and gift of explaining are sorely needed, especially at the FTFNYT.
If the opportunity arises, please slap Nate Silver around on Twitter. He is becoming a total crank.
Wag
Thanks for all of your posts here, and best of luck with the PhD!
Suzanne
So happy for you. Please don’t be a stranger.
Betty Cracker
Congrats on starting a new chapter with the doctoral program! I’m sure you’ll do well and manage to keep up with multiple obligations because you’re a mensch. I hope you’ll find time to duck in here and join us during national and/or global WTF moments, whether healthcare policy related or not. :)
David Anderson
@Mary G: I’ve muted Silver on Twitter as the signal to noise is not good enough….
The majority of my time at Duke Margolis in the past fiscal year was funded for COVID work (mainly Rockefeller Foundation work). I am extraordinarily aware of what I know about infectious disease and public health epidemiology (a little bit, mainly I know who I should talk to) and what I don’t know about those subjects (a metric shit ton).
Knowing what one does not know about a new subject, especially the foundational lessons and the deep institutional knowledge is an important thing to keep in mind for generically smart and clever folks who do one thing really well. I’ve tried to remind myself that just like I am an expert on a small chunk of the US health insurance markets, there are people who have spent just as much or even more time and big brain cycles thinking about pandemics well before December 2019 who are far more likely to get things useful than I am spouting off on the basis of a few conversations, a Twitter thread and over-caffeination.
David Anderson
@Mary G: Claire is well enough for hammer throwing although she prefers to be caber tossed.
Rusty
Best wishes on the PhD program! It will take a lot of effort doing it with kids, my wife took the same path and it took a lot of heavy lifting from both of us. Thank you for all your posts here, it has been a tremendous education and gift to this community. Good luck!
Spanky
@David Anderson: Then weight for height? Tug o’ war?
guachi
I love your posts and look forward to them more than any other poster. True! It’s a great way to start my day learning something about healthcare. Just because your posts don’t generate dozens of responses doesn’t mean we don’t love them.
You’ve ruined me when I talk to others about healthcare.
PaulWartenberg
GO.
Go get PUBLISHED. Be a part of the peer process of scientific and health care professionalism!
FLY AWAY, BE FREE!!!
(glances about)
Is Balloon Juice a paying gig…? (prepares resume)
Formica
Go get ’em, Mr. Anderson! You have taught me so much about health care and health insurance over these many years, making me even more insufferable at parties. I seriously cannot thank you enough. I am so grateful for all the time you spent telling the rainbows and ponies M4A brigade to shut up and learn some policy, too. For real. Not that I don’t support universal coverage – I certainly do – but reading cogent arguments about why magic slogans won’t solve our problems was very educational, and got me to realize that we need to work with what we have now in order to help as many people as possible, now.
Thanks for answering my questions, too :-)
RSA
@David Anderson: I will not be surprised if faculty remember you and future grad students in the department know your name, 20 years from now.
David Anderson
@PaulWartenberg: Oh, Balloon Juice only pays in groupies….
Spanky
@David Anderson:
Jesus! Don’t tell me Baud showed up at your door.
Middlelee
While I never comment, I nearly always read your posts. Glad you aren’t leaving, just cutting back.
Enjoy your grad work.
Mandarama
I’m so grateful for the knowledge you generously share with us. Like others have been saying, you’re ridiculously overqualified for a Ph.D candidate! (I am pausing to reflect and be grateful that my fellow new Ph.D candidates long ago were unpublished, unemployed 21-year-olds like I was… I can see your poor classmates sitting slackjawed while you and the professor hash out choice in the ACA marketplace!)
Best of wishes, bjdickmayhew!
delk
My husband frequently has a draft that he owes a colleague which is why I stopped playing guitar and learned how to knit.
Bodacious
I have tried to chew my way through most of what you have posted, and I’m a better person for it. But, there was many a time where I felt very, very small…….. Your insight came at a time when I needed to bridge Cobra – to an ACA plan, so thanks for exposing the nooks and crannies of consideration. Please visit, as you are able, and toss some scraps to us jackals.
Sourmash
I read as much as I can of what you write and have learned so much I never knew I wanted to know. Thanks and good luck as you obtain your Ph.D!
mvr
Thanks for your continued work and good luck in grad school!
For many people going involves a bit of a transition shock – but I’m guessing you have a good sense both of what you are getting into and of how to keep working when your confidence wanes.
Have you told us where you are going?
CaseyL
“They grow up so fast…”
I am so thrilled for you: doctoral program! Our Richard/David is going to be a Doctor!!
Are you going to be focusing on some aspect of pandemic health policy (based on what you said at #28)? The past 18 months have been a treasure trove of real-world, real-time data in that area, from complete malevolence to complete competence, with a giant heaping helping of public non-compliance. If this is what you’ll be focusing on, I’d be very interested in hear your ongoing thoughts on the issue.
I’m so glad you’ll be sticking around, though considerably less frequently. It’ll be a real treat, following your progress through the PhD labyrinth! (Took my brother a loooooong time to complete his PhD, but in his defense he chose an unbelievably abstruse subject area.)
Best of luck! Have fun storming the castle! Don’t be a stranger!
polyorchnid octopunch
Thanks, David… it’s been interesting reading your stuff over the last few years. Appreciate the time and effort you put into it for all of us here. Hope the PhD goes well!
Cheers!
Eunicecycle
Just want to add my thanks for your generosity in sharing your insights with us. Because of you, I understand silver loading! Maybe not much of the rest…
RoonieRoo
I don’t comment because your posts are not anywhere near my wheelhouse but I read most of them and you have given me an actual understanding of health insurance that grows more relevant to me year after year with the joys of aging. Good luck on grad school and glad you are sticking around.
Kristine
I’ve enjoyed your insurance deep-dives over the last few years. Enjoy the school experience. It feels so different when you’re older.
Ohio Mom
Ohio Family will forever be indebted to you, David. You told us what to do to keep ourselves covered during a critical juncture (aka bout of unemployment)(if this doesn’t ring any bells for people not named David Anderson, this was done off-line). Can I say thank-you enough, probably not.
I think all of us readers are all more sophisticated about health coverage and navigating our options after all these years of reading you.
On a meta-level, it’s been an education about the distance between broad policy goals and the nitty-gritty of implementation. Definitely part of what has made this a full-service blog.
I hope you keep your promise to post now and then because otherwise I will miss your “voice.” If it helps your thinking process, write about your research but I for one would be happy to hear more personal posts about balancing life as a doctoral student and family man. We will definitely want to hear about you successes so we can congratulate you.
Raoul Paste
“ Well, no more scones for me mater, I’m off to play the grand piano. I’m off to get my PhD in high-minded policy”
It’s good to see so many well-wishers here at BJ
David Anderson
@CaseyL: I’m enrolled as part of the first doctoral cohort at the Duke University Department of Population Health Sciences.
My concentration will be in the Health Services Research track with a focus on health policy implementation. I am utterly fascinated by the health (and economic) impacts of choice complexity and choice confusion on the ACA marketplaces, so my dissertation is likely to be somewhere in that neighborhood.
Regarding COVID as a research/career path, I’m unlikely to go that route as I don’t find internal energy every morning to get up and think about it like I do with the ACA and from a more pragmatic/cynical point of view, epidemic public health as a field is likely to be over-saturated with graduates in 3 to 5 years while I already have a niche where I am very well evolved for.
Madame Bupkis
David, you have been a source of information, education and inspiration to me. Your ACA posts helped me in my job and with friends. I have learned so much from you. Best of luck!
MazeDancer
Wise choice! And please stick to it. We want you to happily become Dr. Anderson.
May happiness be yours!
Ken
To David: Congratulations, and thanks for all the useful information you’ve provided, even if most of it went over my head.
To everyone else: WAKE UP SHEEPLE! First Cheryl, then David? Too much of a “coincidence” for my taste. Cole has begun his Night of the Long Mustard Spoons and is removing front-pagers. He’s gonna get a bunch of right-wing nuts to replace them, I’m sure of it.
debbie
Thank you so much for sharing your insights and knowledge. Enjoy grad school and remember not to run with sharpened pencils!
Nutmeg again
Best of luck! I hope the PhD steeplechase doesn’t deform your life unnecessarily, and that you find plenty of moments of joy–
Nutmeg again
@Nutmeg again: PS, Also, too: dogs! cats! kids!!
PaulWartenberg
@David Anderson:
Just my luck. I’m practicing to be a bass player. NOBODY flirts with the bass players… /cries
JAFD
Salutations,
Good luck to you, future Doctor Anderson, and to Claire and the rest of your family.
At some point, I hope you’ll write something like ‘a layperson’s guide to health insurance’, with explanations of terms and concepts, and a guide for picking a reasonably good plan for your family. The country needs something like that.
All the best!
cope
Best of luck to you with your doctorate. Several teachers I worked with went through Ed.D. programs while also teaching so I have a tiny sense of the workload ahead of you.
Your insurance information helped me get my wife insured sufficiently well to cover her liver disease and ultimate transplant when she was self employed. Then, we navigated the Social Security Disability maze before she finally aged into Medicare. Thank you.
cope
@PaulWartenberg: That’s why I gave up banjo when I went to college and took up guitar.
Old School
Are you trying to say there won’t be another “You be the ref” post for quite a while? Drat.
Have a good vacation and best of luck in grad school!
gene108
Congratulations on acceptance into the doctoral program. That alone is a full time occupation. Good luck!
CaseyL
@David Anderson: I understand your wanting to stay with what you’re most motivated by and familiar with. Just wondered if the Covid mishegos – and what it revealed in terms of information dissemination, disinformation, and public buy-in – would be something to be noted as well. These were, and continue to be, factors in the ACA as well; the pandemic brought them into sharper relief. As a source of More Data, if nothing else.
Ida Slapter
What everyone else said!
Judging by the way you do your homework and present yourself and your thoughts here, you’re headed for great new adventures.
Best wishes, David. Don’t be a stranger! ??
wvng
Shoot. They should just give you your doctorate then made you head of the department.
RobertDSC-Work
Wishing you all the best. Thankful for what you’ve given us. Looking forward to seeing you when we see you.
KSinMA
Best of luck, David—and have a lovely vacation!
Another Scott
Thanks for all the work you have done here, and in Public Comments on legislation. You’ve been extremely generous in many ways. Pace yourself, get your work done, and then post when you can.
Duke is very fortunate to have you.
Best of luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
feebog
Thank you for the years of articles and the tons of valuable information. Hope to read you on at least a semi-regular basis. And congrats on starting your program.
David Anderson
@wvng: fuck no…. I should never run a department. I am having a good day when I remember to put on pants.
Meyerman
Thanks for all your posts! From working the pitch to health insurance market design, you are an exemplary teacher. Enjoy your vacation and your program. Hope to see you back here from time to time when you have time.
H.E.Wolf
Congratulations, thanks, and best wishes as you embark on your newest venture!
BeautifulPlumage
David, your posts have been very valuable for this jackal. Back when the ACA became law I was working part time and I was able to get affordable health care. Now I work at a small company that struggles with health insurance costs. Your posts have helped me understand a bit more about this whole area. Thank you for your past posts, and best wishes for your new venture. Have a great break!
Yarrow
David, congrats on starting the doctoral program. They are lucky to have you. Your posts here through the years have been invaluable. Thank you so much for keeping us so well informed.
For me your posts on how to navigate the exchange and how to pick the right plan have been personally important. I don’t think I can tell you how helpful they have been to me. Thank you so much. I also very much appreciate when you tell us to pick up the phone and call our elected representatives on a healthcare/ACA issue. If you say call, I know it’s important. And I call.
I hope you’ll post here from time to time, as and when you have any mental bandwidth. Enjoy your vacation with your family and best of luck in the new program.
citizen dave
You’re the best! Onward and upward! You will do more great things. I haven’t had to deal with the ACA directly, so don’t read every word every day, but as a failed doctoral economics person from the 1980s, I always enjoy the intersection of economics and health care policy discussions you and all the jackals have engaged in here.
sab
Congratulations and good luck to you. You have been so helpful here.
Chris Sherbak
I’m nowhere close to being any sort of health policy person (I’m more of a coder/health consumer) but your postings have always been thoughtful and well written even for the casual (but concerned) reader. You stayed away from jargon for the most part and only delved into the technical when needed, which I appreciated immensely. Good luck as you further your (obvious) passion and devotion to good science, good data and good policy. We have been and will be the better for it. Cheers!
Jim Bales
Congratulations, Dave!
You know, there are 3 stages of being a PhD candidate:
1) I want my thesis to win the Nobel prize
2) I want my thesis to be a significant contribution to my field
3) I want my thesis to be a document my advisor will sign
Bales’s law states that only stage 3 students finish. ;-)
In all seriousness, I am quite confident that you have the chops to pull this off!
And, if you choose to tackle the professorial track, you will teach many, many fortunate students
My very best wishes to you and yours
Jim
David Anderson
@Jim Bales: I’m going in with the mindset that the best dissertation is a done dissertation.
marklar
Frankly, you should assemble your posts over the last few years and submit them to your committee. If I was a member, I’d consider your mastery of the literature and ability to summarize it to support policy as already meeting the criteria needed to be awarded a doctorate. Thirty years ago, my advisor told me that a dissertation is primarily a hurdle, providing you the credentials to move forward and make your real contributions. You have proven that you are ready to do so. Forward, in all directions!
susanna
Best of fortune on your continuing education! Congratulations and thank you for keeping us informed on this site as you’ve so competently done.
TXSwede
Even pre-Duke, and pre-reveal, you were one of the great posters-of-facts at this corner of the net.
I, for one, will continue to look forward to your writing, here and elsewhere. Thank you.
JustRuss
Don’t worry about us, we’ll muddle along without you, but do drop by when you can. Best of luck on the PhD, not that you’ll need it.
Olivia
You have helped me understand so much. The best of luck to you!
funlady75
Best wishes – lurker here, but your info on health care was very valuable to me!
StringOnAStick
@David Anderson: Your planning and motivation are sound and extremely well thought out, just like everything else I’ve read from you!
If like to add my thanks for all the health care and insurance information you’ve gifted us over the years; I’ve always had a better understanding of the ACA than anyone I talked to about it thanks to you. It made me better able to trumpet Democrat’s success in such a critical area of difference between the parties, and that was before one party came out as insane.
Now go have fun, then kick some academic butt!
sab
This is so very very cool. On a normal day you get under 10 comments. I know you don’t care. But your loyal lurkers today are swarming because you have announced that you aren’t leaving but you will just be posting a lot less.
VOR
Thank you for your past work and I wish you nothing but the best going forward.
Poe Larity
I don’t read most of your posts but have searched on them whenever something personal came up. Have at least a half dozen bookmarked. Silverloading! So while you may not get the instant gratification of the popular kids here I think these comments show how important you are. I don’t bookmark any of the other kids, other than maybe that sciency Levenson guy and some of Dennis G’s work.
dnfree
Best of wishes for your continued academic and other pursuits. It’s been a real pleasure both to be more informed and to see you spread your wings.
Yutsano
LUUUUUUUUCK!!!
U got dis doe.
Don’t worry about us. We’ll still be our wonderful snarly selves. We’ll be watching for your next entry however.
Don’t you dare be too much of a stranger!
Lobo
Loved your posts! I have learned a lot. My suggestion on how to continue would be to present a single aspect of an issue that you are noodling on and ask for comments. We could be your really rough draft squad. Good luck and thanks for you thoughts on choice.
Ol'Froth
You’ve come far from those days at Drinking Liberally in Pittsburgh!
Hildebrand
Good luck on the PhD program – and indeed, a good dissertation is a done dissertation. That said, enjoy the process, the research, the opportunities that the program will provide.
My great thanks for your posts – while I rarely comment on them, I have learned so much from them. Your expertise, and the way you articulate your ideas, are gifts to this community.
SFBayAreaGal
David, I wish you, and your family all the best. I know you will do great in the PhD program.
I will miss seeing your posts everyday. It provided a form of comfort. I am so happy you’re not leaving us.
All the best.
P.S. Give Claire a big hug.
Ruckus
David, good luck with the PHD stuff.
I hear it’s a lot of work, but you seem used to that, and I’d bet that your dissertation is at least 1/3 done already. We can get by with you being here less often, you do what you need to do for you.
ronno2018
congrats and good luck! I only understand 2/3rds of your posts but I have learned a lot LOL, so keep posting if you can!
stinger
Maybe Mayhew can stand in for you sometimes? (Coming late to the post, so presumably a dozen other similar comments have been made above.)
Good luck, and anything you can post here will be welcome!
lurker
Read the post, tl,dr on comments. What is clear is that you need to focus on the intersection between soccer refereeing and healthcare. That should be good for volumes of work. Like … at least one or two posts a year … if you are creative and really make an effort at it…
In a more serious vein, enjoy the vacation and good luck with starting the program. We will appreciate whatever you can deliver, even if you are messing with my morning routine.
Not sure you should be doing a hammer throw with the kids – seems like more of a discus type of thing, maybe a shot put for a little one. With the right haircut, it could be a javelin throw.
Richard
Thanks for your posts. I don’t understand them but i recognize them as helpful. That is why you are studying something that will be useful, while i am doing the best i can in a post-luddite nightmare. Best of luck and thank you again!!!
Zelma
Thank you for all your posts, Like everyone else, I’ve learned a lot. I wonder how our professors will cope with someone who may have more publications (and know more) than they do. Good luck. The program is fortunate to have you.
Paul W.
Very late to say so but also very glad to have had so many posts that illuminate on the decision of the government and insurers perspective on all of this!