The NFL had an interesting case of aggressive rules lawyering this weekend by the Baltimore Ravens: The basic exploit that the Ravens hacked is that a game can end on an offensive penalty. A punt is considered an offensive play for rule purposes. So the Ravens wanted to minimize their risk and they were willing …
Two important papers
I’ve had two NBER papers that I am struggling to make sense with. These papers are critical health policy papers as they relate to high deductible health plans (HDHP). We’re going in that direction for a lot of health policy. My prior assumption is that high deductible health plans paired with a health savings account …
Amendment 69, single payer and plausible option space
Amendment 69 was the Colorado Care amendment. Ballotpedia has the language the results: A “yes” vote supported creating ColoradoCare, a healthcare payment system designed to finance universal healthcare for Colorado residents partly through an additional 10 percent payroll tax—two thirds paid by employers and one third by employees—providing approximately $25 billion per year in revenue. …
Amendment 69, single payer and plausible option spacePost + Comments (64)
What to do next year?
I want to build on Mister Mix’s post over the weekend about the challenge of running as a challenger in a tough seat. I think everyone should read that post first. 2017 is mostly a local election year. It is a year for mayors, it is a year for school board members, it is a …
West Virginia and bad strategy
This post is a look at a weakness in the ACA. This particular weakness is mind-numbing stupidity of some carriers. The example is West Virginia and Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s strategy and results from the 2015 plan year. I am using the recently released 2015 Plan Year Risk Corridor allocations. Companies that have …
Who bears the risk
Who bears the risk? That is a fundamental question of our political system. In the United States, we are a mixed economy where there is a mixture of private risk bearing and public risk bearing. All industrialized nations have a mixed economy where there is public and private risk bearing. The difference is the split …
Recission and the bad old days
Sabrina Corlette is going through all of the conditions that used to be cause for an insurer to either never write a policy or to go back through medical records and rescind a policy once someone got expensive: AIDS, diseases associated with AIDS, arthritis, gout, lupus, herniated disc, TMJ, carpal tunnel, disease/disorder of back …