Straight Platform Politics

The Free Market And Health Care – Part 3

  “What Is the Free-Market Approach to Health Care Reform?” This is an article published on The CATO Institute on Health Care Reform. http://healthcare.cato.org/     The article lists seven reforms; we have reviewed the first four and will now look at the last three. See Part 2

Reform 5. “We also need to rethink medical licensing laws to encourage greater competition among providers.” Examining the history of enabling legislation in the health care system causes many people to conclude that much of the legislation was enacted to protect the profession and not the patient. See The Four-Party Health Care System series

Reform 6. “Congress should give Medicare enrollees a voucher, let them choose any health plan on the market, and let them keep the savings if they choose an economical plan. Medicare could even give larger vouchers to the poor and sick to ensure they could afford coverage.” This may encourage a healthier lifestyle in the elderly while improving competition among insurers.

Reform 7. “The expansion of ‘health status insurance’ would protect many of those with preexisting conditions.” (See the February 18, 2009 Policy Analysis by John H. Cochrane on the topic of health status insurance at http://cato.org/ )

There have been good health care reforms proposed by a number of people and organizations. Many of these reforms would not be costly. But, are Congress and the President listening?

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The Free Market And Health Care – Part 1

The CATO Institute on Health Care Reform published the article “What Is the Free-Market Approach to Health Care Reform?” The article agrees that our health care system is in need of reform: “It costs too much. Too many people lack health insurance. And quality can be uneven.”

“But a government takeover of the health care system, as proposed by the president and some in Congress, would be a step in the wrong direction. Instead, we should pursue a uniquely American solution, one that builds on free markets, competition, and choice.”

The proposed solution lists seven reforms. We will look at each.

Reform 1. “Let individuals control their health care dollars, and free them to choose from a wide variety of health care plans and providers.” This would entail dismantling the huge amount of government legislation (both state and federal) that has denied individuals access to certain insurance providers and vice versa.

Reform 2. “Move away from a health care system dominated by employer-provided health insurance.” As the article asserts, health insurance “should be personal and portable” and not controlled by governments or employers. Under our employer-based system, the true cost of health care is hidden from employees, employee choice of health care policies is limited, the self-employed are at a costly disadvantage, and if employees lose employment, they may become uninsured.  See The Four-Party Health Care System series

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Marriage and Marital Loss Affect Mid-Life Health – Part 4

The Findings: the unmarried

An article by Mary Elizabeth Hughes and Linda J. Waite, recently published in the journal of the American Sociological Association, examines marriage, marital loss, and mid-life health. The findings suggest that a person’s current health in mid-life reflects not only the effects of the person’s current marital state but also the effects of the person’s marital biography. See Part 3

The authors compared those who were previously married but were not currently married with those who were currently married. They found that the previously married have “significantly worse health than the currently married.” The previously married reported more chronic conditions, more mobility limitations, and poorer self-rated health and showed more symptoms of depression.

Those who had never married, when compared to the currently married, reported more mobility limitations, worse self-rated health, and more depression symptoms. However, there were no differences in the number of chronic conditions reported by this group and the currently married.

The previously married (those not remarried) fared worse than those who had never married at   all.

Debbie Mandel, stress management specialist: A good marriage is like making a deposit in your health savings account for midlife and the golden years. (Health Behavior News Service 07/27/09)

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Marriage and Marital Loss Affect Mid-Life Health – Part 3

The Findings: the currently married

The article “Marital Biography and Health at Mid-Life” by Mary Elizabeth Hughes and Linda J. Waite was recently published in the journal of the American Sociological Association. The findings suggest that a middle-aged person’s current health reflects not only the effects of the person’s current marital state but also the effects of the person’s marital biography. See Part 2

One finding was that marital loss damages a person’s health years later in life even if the person remarries. This strongly supported the authors’ hypothesis that health in mid-life is linked to marital transitions as well as to current marital status.

Comparing the currently married, those who were continuously married had better health than those who had experienced a loss but later had remarried. The remarried showed poorer health than the continuously married on all the various health aspects examined by the authors. These were: number of chronic conditions, number of mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depression symptoms.

Mark Hayward, professor at University of Texas at Austin Department of Sociology: “There’s no erasure of the effects of divorce…Think of divorce as one of the most intense stressors… You’re not going back to your original set point.” (CNN.com 07/28/09)

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Marriage and Marital Loss Affect Mid-Life Health – Part 3

The Findings: the currently married

The article “Marital Biography and Health at Mid-Life” by Mary Elizabeth Hughes and Linda J. Waite was recently published in the journal of the American Sociological Association. The findings suggest that a middle-aged person’s current health reflects not only the effects of the person’s current marital state but also the effects of the person’s marital biography. See Part 2

One finding was that marital loss damages a person’s health years later in life even if the person remarries. This strongly supported the authors’ hypothesis that health in mid-life is linked to marital transitions as well as to current marital status.

Comparing the currently married, those who were continuously married had better health than those who had experienced a loss but later had remarried. The remarried showed poorer health than the continuously married on all the various health aspects examined by the authors. These were: number of chronic conditions, number of mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depression symptoms.

Mark Hayward, professor at University of Texas at Austin Department of Sociology: “There’s no erasure of the effects of divorce…Think of divorce as one of the most intense stressors… You’re not going back to your original set point.” (CNN.com 07/28/09)

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Marriage and Marital Loss Affect Mid-Life Health – Part 1

The Research

The article “Marital Biography and Health at Mid-Life” was recently published in the September issue of Journal of Health and Social Behavior. The research tested several hypotheses concerning long-term effects of people’s marital history, i.e. marriages and marital losses, on their current mid-life health.

Mary Elizabeth Hughes, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Linda J. Waite, professor at the University of Chicago Department of Sociology, are the authors.

The data came from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative study of people over the age of 50. The researchers used the 1992 HRS; study participants were 51 to 61 years of age when they were interviewed in 1992. The research analyses used sample sizes of 8,652 or 8,809 participants.

Hughes and Waite examined four aspects of health at mid-life: number of chronic conditions, number of mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depression symptoms. They studied how each is affected by marriage, non-marriage, divorce, widowhood, and remarriage.

Linda J. Waite: “Think of health as money in the bank. Think of a marriage as a mechanism for ‘saving’ or adding to health. Think of divorce as a period of very high expenditures.” (Health Behavior News Service, 07/27/09).

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