March 2023 Mercatus on Healthcare

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

Last month, we asked if there would be a reckoning over COVID-19 policies. With the third anniversary in March of the pandemic shutdowns, that reckoning is underway, and Mercatus scholars are playing a key role in it: Vitor Melo published a new paper analyzing the effects of city-wide indoor vaccination mandates in the US and found that checking vax cards didn’t have the effects that mayors claimed they would. This month, our scholars also wrote about how to get US debt under control.

COVID-19 Policies

Indoor Vaccine Mandates in US Cities, Vaccination Behavior, and COVID-19 Outcomes (working paper)

Vitor Melo and his coauthors found that US city-level indoor vaccine mandates didn’t increase vaccine uptake and didn’t result in fewer COVID-19 cases or deaths. This is the first-ever analysis of the effect of city-level indoor vaccine mandates in the US.

Melo’s research was mentioned by Johns Hopkins University’s Dr. Marty Makary during a hearing held by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Tuesday, February 28. Melo also talked about his research on Fox News, WPHT Radio, and Fox 5, and his study was featured in the New York Post, the Daily Wire, WTOP, Fox 5, the National Desk, and the Center Square, among other outlets.

Healthcare Legal Landscape Post-COVID: Everything You Need to Know (blog post)

What will happen when the Public Health Emergency (PHE) ends? What effects did the omnibus bill have on the healthcare legal landscape? Elise Amez-Droz and Martyna Pawluk broke down the effects of the end of the PHE and the omnibus bill on Medicaid and other healthcare programs.

Medicaid and Healthcare Entitlements

If Medicaid Expansion Saves Lives, We Still Don't Know How (blog post)

Markus Bjoerkheim challenges the interpretation of a recent paper from the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which found Medicaid expansion reduced mortality. The “health insurance reduces mortality” interpretation implies mortality reductions should primarily have been found among those uninsured prior to expansion. Bjoerkheim explains that this is not really what the study found.

Debt Ceiling and Healthcare Entitlement Reforms (blog post)

Veronique de Rugy and Elise Amez-Droz provide an explanation of the debt ceiling and what happens when it is reached. Because healthcare entitlements are key drivers of US debt, major reforms are needed, so de Rugy and Amez-Droz highlight proposed reforms for healthcare entitlements, including establishing caps on federal spending and reducing federal matching rates for Medicaid and increasing Medicare Part B premiums.

Certificate-of-Need Reform

South Carolina Moves Toward Historic Health Care Reform (expert commentary)

Vitor Melo and Liam Sigaud discuss South Carolina's progress toward historic healthcare reform. The legislature is considering a bill that would repeal most of the state’s certificate-of-need program. If the bill becomes law, South Carolina could see 34 additional hospitals enter the market, including nine in rural regions.