Retirement savings and income depend on the person’s prior income, longevity, the macroeconomic environment, Social Security and other entitlement programs.
Our Sunday Chart of the Week Since our chart looks at Medicaid spending on rare diseases, we better start with Medicaid. It is complicated. Yes, Medicaid targets the poor and has federal and state funding. However, varying from state to…
Is $1 a day for someone else’s pill too much to pay with your tax dollars? $10? $100? $1,000? Kaiser Health News recently reported that a new treatment for hepatitis C with a 90% success rate will cost $1,000 a pill. Lasting 12 weeks, the treatment…
I suspect that the more you study Medicaid the less you know. We better start with by saying Medicaid is not what most of us think it is. Yes, it involves medical care for the poor. But, federal law says…
All the talk about Big Bird and federal funding is really about 2 much bigger issues. 1. Discretionary Spending With proposed spending in the Obama 2013 budget at 3.7 trillion dollars, a tiny proportion–between 1 and 2 percent, goes to the…
Presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer said there would be six 15-minute segments in the first presidential debate on October 3rd. Devoting the entire first half to “the economy,” he will also cover healthcare, the role of government, and “governing.” Like the…
It might be tough to use statistics to judge US health care. Among OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), from 1980 to 1999, for life expectancy, the US ranked #19 and Canada was #5. However, the order flips–US…
Looking forward to your daily Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino, you see that the calorie count sign says 500 calories. Change your mind? Most studies indicate that knowing a calorie count has little if any impact on purchasing decisions. Then, you…
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