Income inequality and health

On his blog, Greg Mankiw debunks a claim by Paul Krugman about income inequality reducing health, courtesy of a summary by Angus Deaton of his own research and other work that revisits the Wilkinson hypothesis.

Apps for personal finance

The Times reviews money management apps. My favorite quote is toward the end:

"Jim Bruene, founder of the NetBanker blog ... , can appreciate old-school methods for a period of time. 'Diligently hand-entering every expense for a month or two can be eye-opening, at least for the more short-term scenario where you are trying to get a handle on what’s happening with all your cash.'

"But that'll require some willpower."

Medicaid increases ER vists

The Times reports on a Science article finding strong increases in ER usage following the randomized Oregon Medicaid expansion, based on administrative data. Toward the bottom of the first page of the Science article, the authors conveniently summarize their other findings to date:

• Medicaid improved self-reported general health and reduced depression
• No statistically significant effects on measured physical health, specifically blood pressure, cholesterol, or glycated hemoglobin levels
• Medicaid decreased financial strain, but did not have statistically significant effects on employment or earnings
• Medicaid increased health care use; increased self-reported access to and use of primary care, as well as self-reported use of prescription drugs and preventive care
• No statistically significant effect of Medicaid on self-reported use of the hospital or the emergency department; however, Medicaid increased hospital use as measured in hospital administrative data

The authors discuss some reasons why patterns in self-reports, which didn't suggest many effects of the expansion, differ from those in administrative data. The latter are of higher precision and represent different universes. Administrative data pick up the behavior of people who don't respond to survey requests or who don't complete interviews.

Krueger on CEA stint

Here's a fun interview with Alan Krueger on his time in Washington at the CEA.

Could Congress pass Social Security today?

A great point by David Brooks today, that it's hard to see how a large safety net program like Social Security could ever pass in Congress today given the atomistic trend in American life.

Death rates by veteran status in California

The LA Times reports on death rates among Californian veterans and nonveterans under 35. Higher suicides and accidents among vets, but lower homicides and all other causes, the latter surely a "healthy warrior" effect. Lower risk of homicide was most interesting to me, and I wonder whether it's a deterrent effect, or maybe a place-of-residence effect.

New blood pressure guidelines

JAMA published new blood pressure guidelines from JNC 8 that moved targets somewhat higher for older hypertensive patients. A great quote in this NYT article covering the announcement mentions the old "folk medicine" that focused on systolic BP alone and aimed for "100 plus your age." Heaven help the centenarians!