And what is it with this Beyonce and Jay Z, amirite? This hip-hop stuff. I don’t get it:
In his defense, this is kind of how I feel about speedwalking. I mean, are they walking? Are they running? What’s going on with it?
Risk Adjustment:Vox::Narrow Networks:538
There are two recent health policy articles by interested lay expertise sites that have me scratching my head. In Vox’s case, I am seeing a conclusion without context. For 538, I can not figure out the model that leads to a core assumption. These sites’ jobs are to inform the public and in these cases I think they can do a better job of their job.
Let’s start with Vox as Sarah Kliff looks at a Society of Actuaries analysis of risk scores on the individual market. She draws a very strong conclusion.
Between 2014 and 2015, SOA finds that Obamacare’s average risk scores went up by 5 percent. This means that the overall pool of people on the marketplace were sicker in 2015 than 2014. You can see the data here, in a table from the report.
The Society of Actuaries draws a much weaker conclusion
Risk measures published in the CCIIO release show that the average measure of risk increased from 2014 to 2015. Increased risk scores may be a combination of identification through better coding as well as a measure of the actual population health….
The program is still too immature to draw conclusive inferences about the future of the pool or marketplaces.
Vox saw a number that went up (bad) and wrote a story with no context.
Overnight/Early Morning Open Thread
England Prevails! Or not. The Invisible Hand is weighing in now.
Further Airing of the Grievances
So, Bernie Sanders gave a speech last night. We’ve been talking about it. I’m sure some of y’all are sick of the entire discussion, which is fine — lots of other interesting threads below, or, if your scroll is sticky, there’s sure to be another up top soon.
But I’m one of those annoying assholes who believe the only way to work through a conflict is to get everything on the table. (The four scariest words in my family are “we need to talk…”)
It’s not that I enjoy picking at scabs (well, maybe a little). It’s that only in this way can we come together and move forward. Or decide that each other are irredeemable morons upon whom we should not bother to waste another pixel and look for other allies instead. Either outcome is progress!
Friday Morning Open Thread: Now Every Day Is April Fool’s Day!
(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
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Donald Trump is the odds-on favorite to be the GOP nominee for president this year. Go ahead, April Fool's Day, try to top that.
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) March 31, 2016
Yes, once again we’re going to have to grit our teeth and ‘celebrate’ the favorite holiday for twelve-year-old boys of all ages and genders. While we wait for the Blogmaster to post his favorites, here’s the Washington Post with some “terrible history of this garbage holiday”:
… How did we get into this mess? We asked Alex Boese, curator of the online Museum of Hoaxes. He says you can blame the Dutch (who first referenced April Fools’ in a 16th-century text) or the French (who overhauled their annual calendar in the 1500s, confusing “fools” who didn’t adapt). Or maybe the U.K., home of the first April Fools’ Day prank on record, or Germany, which popularized fake April Fools’ news stories. And certainly the good ol’ U.S.A. — because who else would be tickled by the idea of renaming a national monument the “Taco Liberty Bell?”…
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While we brace ourselves — how the hell can you tell a Trump or Cruz hoax from the real thing, not to mention anything coming from Reince Priebus? — what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the week?
Friday Morning Open Thread: Now <em>Every</em> Day Is April Fool’s Day!Post + Comments (86)
Open Thread: Well, It’s A Worthy Cause
"Feel the Burn?" Sanders slogan used to encourage STD testing: https://t.co/dAtbMAmbZu pic.twitter.com/NamXRGYune
— The Hill (@thehill) March 31, 2016
When I first saw this on the twitter feeds yesterday, I assumed it was a photoshopped image, but The Hill is profoundly anti-japery.
And it’s probably because I’m old — I grew up in the Bronx, and left at the height of the ‘Fort Apache’ days — but as a hashtag #TheBronxIsBerning is so.very.NO.
Three ways in the House
Reading the Huffington Post, I saw this political bodice ripper and I still can’t figure out how to make the mechanics of the piece actually work in our shared reality:
Suddenly they realize, “holy shit, what if we could stop Donald Trump and keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House?”
So they run a moderate establishment Republican as a third-party candidate — 100 percent as a spoiler candidate. Worst case scenario oh, they prevent Donald Trump from winning the White House. Best case scenario they pull enough votes away from Hillary Clinton to prevent her from securing the necessary majority of 270 electoral votes.
Then the election goes to a House of Representatives ballot presided over Speaker Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s former running mate in 2012.
If neither candidate gets 270 electoral college votes, Congress picks the president. And he will be called President Mitt, the one who is laying the groundwork for this doomsday electoral scenario.
The basic theory is that a third party candidate who is Generic Republican Establishment (no not Pawlenty) would be able to do three things at the same time:
- Insure that Trump does not get 270 electoral votes
- win at least one electoral vote
- Insure that Hillary Clinton does not get 270 electoral votes
In an alternative universe, that could work, but in this universe, I am having a hard time seeing how to actually make it work with a generic Republican running as a non-Trump alternative.
I think the first part is achievable. However, the third party Republican spoiler is not needed. Continual video playback of Trump’s speeches to non-Trump fans will isnure that. If the Republican establishment decided it needed at least one electoral vote, it’s sock pocket could probably win Utah or a Congressional district in Nebraska. Worse comes to worse, an elector could be a faithless elector. I’ll concede the mechanics on this one.
The problem with this pre-emptive pants shitting is the third part.