I have written before (here, here, here and here) about health care – an important topic in a town like Springfield in which the health racket industry in all its manifestations is the top employer. I take it up again here to vent about the now-famous (among wonks) study of Medicaid outcomes in Oregon – or rather about the reactions to it.
Much has been said by Ezra Klein, , Kevin Drum and Aaron Carroll. I want to underline only one fundamental point. Critics rail that the study did not prove that providing Medicaid to people who didn’t havehealth insurance did not make them healthier, and that the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act therefore is a waste of money. But no one buys health insurance to make them healthier. The purpose of health insurance is to enable you to afford treatment when you get sick or injured, and to protect you from going bankrupt if you get really sick or injured. This Medicaid does.
It isn't my insight, but I'm happy to pass this on: Is fire Insurance worthless? After all, there’s no evidence that it prevents fires. But people seem to think having fire insurance is a good thing anyway. Duped by the liberal media, perhaps.
