April 2023 Mercatus on Healthcare

Updates on healthcare research and commentary from the Mercatus Center's Open Health Project

Last Saturday, after a pandemic-long break, states began reviewing their Medicaid rolls and removing ineligible enrollees. With Medicaid rolls nationwide nearing 100 million beneficiaries, the redetermination process represents a gargantuan administrative task. But the human consequences of the process is what has journalists and patient advocates panicking: What will happen to the people who lose Medicaid coverage? Open Health’s Kofi Ampaabeng tempered fears in a blog post.

Medicaid

End of Medicaid’s Continuous Enrollment: What Are the Stakes? (blog post)

Kofi Ampaabeng notes that Medicaid redeterminations are unlikely to render many Americans uninsured.

Biden Budget: Summary and Assessment of Medicaid Items (blog post)

Peter Nelson and Elise Amez-Droz break down President Biden’s budget items on Medicaid, including drug pricing, managed care, home and community-based services, expansion-like coverage and 12-month postpartum coverage.

Medicare

President Biden’s Medicare Shell Game (essay)

Charles Blahous explains that the White House’s budget proposals would only improve the appearance of Medicare’s finances while disguising their actual deterioration.

Public Health and COVID-19

Politics aside, did indoor vaccine mandates work? | The Hill (op-ed)

Vitor Melo and Liam Sigaud draw upon their research to highlight the effects of city-level indoor vaccine mandates on COVID cases and deaths. They also highlight specific findings for the District of Columbia and Philadelphia.

The Scandalous Effects of Nursing Home Isolation During COVID-19 | The Hill (op-ed)

Vitor Melo and Conor Norris highlight findings from a recent Mercatus paper: nursing homes that implemented strict isolation measures experienced more total deaths during the pandemic than did nursing homes with less strict measures.

Rapid Antigen Tests: A Missed Opportunity (blog post)

Markus Bjoerkheim shows how, at $5 per test, rapid antigen tests were a bargain compared to other public health interventions and could have saved lives, especially in nursing homes.

Politicization of Medicine and Science is Dangerous (blog post)

Kofi Ampaabeng argues that deputizing medical professionals to fix social problems is doomed to fail, with unintended but often foreseeable consequences.

Drug Policy

Rich countries should pay their fair share for American drugs | The Hill (op-ed)

Kofi Ampaabeng recommends that, rather than artificially cap the price of drugs stateside, we should ensure that other wealthy countries pay a fair price.