Wealthcare

Wealthcare

An analysis by Jonathan Chait of the philosophy of Ayn Rand and its influence on modern conservative thought. It is based upon 2 books about Rand Published in 2009.

Well worth reading, especially with the rise of Randian thought amongst the Tea Party crowd.

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New Law Could Help Hospice Patients Continue Aggressive Medical Treatments - Kaiser Health News

New Law Could Help Hospice Patients Continue Aggressive Medical Treatments - Kaiser Health News

But the new health law could lead to a major change in Medicare policy that allows patients to get treatment and hospice care simultaneously.

Experts say this dual approach, known as "concurrent care," may be especially useful for people using dialysis to extend their lives, and those waiting for organ transplants that may not come in time. More broadly, advocates say, the change may encourage people with any kind of terminal illness to take advantage of hospice care earlier.

"Having personally had to explain what’s good about hospice to families that think I’m about to shove them onto an iceberg, I know it’s a very difficult decision," says Diane Meier, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

It will be easier to get the terminally ill to accept hospice care, she says, "if you can say to
families, you don’t have to make this terrible choice here — it’s more, not less."

Medicaid Change

The new law instructs Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, to cover simultaneous hospice and curative care for children with terminal illnesses immediately. And it directs the federal Medicare program, which covers seniors and disabled people, to launch up to 15 pilot projects around the country to test the concept. If the experiment is deemed successful and doesn’t increase costs, then Medicare could make the benefit available to everyone in hospice.
Someone with heart disease, for example, could get cardiac drugs that improve blood circulation and at the same time receive hospice’s palliative services. Those include a team of doctors and nurses devoted to easing physical pain and symptoms, and social workers and
clergy who help patients and their families accept death. Hospice staff typically come to a dying person’s house or nursing home a few times a week.

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Myths of the Supply Side - Ross Douthat Blog - NYTimes.com

Myths of the Supply Side - Ross Douthat Blog - NYTimes.com

For an example of what I did have in mind, though, read Kevin Williamson’s fine piece on supply-side economics from the last National Review, in which he goes after the panglossian misinterpretation of supply-side theory that’s become dogma among too many Republican politicians and activists — namely, that tax cuts generate so much economic growth (and with it, increased government revenue) that they more than pay for themselves. As Williamson notes, the most prominent supply-side theorists themselves don’t believe this, but they’re tolerant of politicians who do:

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