Cato reports:
the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, who writes that, because Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) does not support the health care legislation forwarded by Senate Democrats, Lieberman “seems willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score.”
In a subsequent post, Klein relies on the Institute of Medicine’s methodology — which has been used to estimate that 22,000 Americans die each year from lack of insurance — to conclude that the Senate bill would save 150,000 lives over 10 years. He further claims that “Medicare saved lives.”
What don't democratic socialists like Ezra Klein understand?:
a careful study by health economists Amy Finkelstein and Robin McKnight found that in its first 10 years, Medicare had no discernible impact on elderly mortality rates. The authors hypothesize that prior to Medicare, seniors who lacked coverage largely got the care that they needed either by paying out of pocket or relying on public or private charity. Whether Medicare had any impact on elderly mortality after its first 10 years remains an open question.
Imagine that.
