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Politics : The Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (52399)	1/15/2018 6:40:18 PM
From: Wharf Rat	1 Recommendation Recommended By i-node Respond to of 364304

"provide proof " "That should be common sense"

To: koan who wrote (52399)	1/15/2018 7:42:28 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 364304

>> That should be common sense!! Well, it isn't. As a poker player, you may (or may not) be familiar with the concept of "penalty cards". In video poker, if you're dealt a flush with AKQJ3, you would throw the 3 (and the flush) away in an effort to get a Royal Flush. This is because the RF pays so much more than just a flush. The 3 in this situation is a "penalty card" in that throwing it away REDUCES the return on the flop in 38 out of 47 draws, but the payoff is around 100x the amount in 1 out of 47 (breakeven on the others). So, anyway, the same concept applies in the case of the Medicaid expansion. There are benefits. But there are also "penalties." For example, CDC has reported that had mortality continued to decline during ACA implementation in 2014 and 2015 at the same rate as during the 2000–13 period, 80,000 fewer Americans would have died in 2015 alone. We do not know why this is or whether it has anything to do with ACA. But we do know that pre-ACA studies found that public spending on healthcare is often suboptimal, where other forms of social spending actually result in better health outcomes. That is, the "opportunity cost" of health care spending is so high that any gains from health spending are more than offset by the money that can't be spent on other social spending. healthaffairs.org We also know that providing "free" health insurance to some people frees up money for cigarettes and booze. Perhaps people would be better off paying for their OWN health insurance. My point here is not to prove that Medicaid expansion is a bad thing (it may or may not be, I don't know) but it is NOT COMMON SENSE. And if you believe it is, you believe it because you are simply too ignorant on the subject to understand why it is not.