Links for 2011-04-06 [del.icio.us]

• If Economists Designed Health Policy, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
  1. All Americans receive a voucher each year to purchase a standard plan from the private-plan provider of their choice.
  2. Vouchers are individually risk-adjusted; those with higher expected healthcare costs, based on documented medical conditions, receive larger vouchers.
  3. Participating insurance companies providing standard plans cannot deny coverage.
  4. Each year a panel of doctors sets the coverages of the standard plan subject to a strict budget, namely that the total cost to the government of the vouchers cannot exceed 10 percent of GDP.
• Education: Scholarships are an acceptable second-best solution | The Economist
  Yesterday, I argued that providing players with an athletic scholarship was superior to just paying the athletes, not only because it made the league more interesting, but also because it’s in the best interest of the players. Most players will not go pro and make millions of dollars. Many come to university with few other skills and would not typically go to college. I argued that a college education is more valuable than whatever they would have earned on a minor-league team. Normally, it would be better to just pay the players the monetary value of their scholarship (or whatever price the market clears at for their labour). If the NBA or NFL does not work out they can chose to consume education later with this money, if that is their preference. In principle this would be the superior market outcome. But this solution does not work because there are a few sources of market failure which beg some intervention.
• Department of Selective Charts: Social Security Tax Cap Division « The Enterprise Blog
  This chart gives a slightly different read on things. In fact, through much of Social Security’s history—indeed, through what was seen as its glory years as eligibility expanded and benefits rose—a far greater share of total earnings “escaped” taxation and a far greater share of workers had earnings above the cap. From 1950 through 1970, an average of 22 percent of total earnings lay above the tax cap, compared to less than 15 percent for 2009. Likewise, around 29 percent of workers had earnings over the cap, versus around 6 percent today.

  Despite this obvious injustice, the system managed to function and public support remained strong. The Irons/Yglesias chart begins right when the percentage of earnings above the tax cap started to rise, after a decline that began in the 1960s. In other words, it couldn’t be better placed to make Yglesias’ point look strong. But it is, shall we say, a little selective with regard to the longer-term trends.

• The GOP Health Care Plan: A Difference in Kind, Not Degree – Megan McArdle – Business – The Atlantic
  Expect there to be a lot of angry back and forth over this in the next week or so. But one thing to keep in mind is that this Medicare plan is not effectively very different from what the Democrats claim ObamaCare is going to do: which is to say, cap the amount of money spent on providing health benefits to those who are not rich enough to opt out of the public system. The Democrats want to do so by having a central committee of experts decide what our health dollars get spent on; the GOP wants to put those decisions into the hands of consumers. But this is not an argument about who loves old, sick people more. Both parties are promising to halt the rapid growth of government health care expenditures, which is definitionally going to fall hardest on old, sick people.
• Yes, GE Paid Taxes in 2010 (We’re Pretty Sure) – Megan McArdle – Business – The Atlantic
  And the economics of a corporate tax.
• Yglesias » This Is Why We’re Fat
  More calories.
• Comparing the Ryan and Obama budgets | Keith Hennessey
  An evaluation.
• Noonan rips Rummy book: ‘Boring, second-rate, half-baked, mediocre’ – By Tom Ricks | The Best Defense
  Conservaties Noonan and Max Boot on the Rumsfeld book.
• Notes on the Ryan Budget – NYTimes.com
  Douthat gives 3 criticisms of the Paul Ryan plan.

Read more at Hispanic Pundit