Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Why does Trump hate national defense?

During his great purge, Stalin not only killed most of the loyal Bolsheviks that brought him to power, he killed many of the generals. This left the USSR vulnerable to Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR that Hitler prophesied in Mein Kampf. Like Stalin, Trump is bent on dismantling US national defense. Not […]

New ACIP Vaccine Board Selected

A rather interesting selection of members for the ACIP Board for Covid. Some are anti-vaxers. There are questions about anti-vaxers being on the board and a resistance to new vaccines. Others believe they may lack enough experience. “what they lack (it seems to me) is the kind of expertise or experience in vaccines that was […]

Fallout for People Insured During Covid with the Passage of Trump’s Bill and Government Subsidies Ending

Lower-income person paying 2% of their income on their premium for healthcare insurance pre-covid, now pay nothing. Higher income people currently pay no more than 8.5% of their income on their premium. Pre-covid they were originally ineligible for financial assistance. All of this will change with the passage of Trump’s bill. Enhanced subsidies for Affordable […]

House Bill and Healthcare

One of the programs in play is reductions in Medicaid and Market Place provisions to pay for the tax breaks to a few. Cutting these programs will result in higher deficits also. Reductions in Medicaid and Marketplace provisions will reduce the roughly $1 trillion in ten-year federal savings these provisions generate thereby magnifying the beautiful […]

The big C

Nobody wants to get cancer. And there is no sure path to avoiding cancer. There are a number of gene alleles that predispose to cancer risk. If you inherit one of these alleles, your risk of cancer is higher than average. That doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. Knowing you’re at higher risk means you […]

Just Some News on RFK Firing the Entire CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel

ACA Expert; Charles Gaba, April 22, 2025 My Monkey’s Paw prediction is coming true: RFK Jr. fires entire CDC vaccine advisory panel | ACA Signups So, all of that was last summer. Skip ahead ten months and voila, the U.S. Supreme Court did indeed hear arguments in the case yesterday…and while the headline from the AP […]

MedPac Report to Congress on Medicare and Medicare Advantage

Rewrite of important points on Medicare and the over payments to commercial MA plans. This is not the entire Chapter 12 MedPac report to Congress. Although, you may think it is as this a rather long post even after I boiled it down. Why Chapter 12? Simple . . . It talks about the rip-off. […]

Structural Racism and Disparities in Youth Exposed to Firearm Violence

The takeaway in this short report about firearm violence is “Black and Hispanic children were more likely to witness or be shot. Black children were 100 times, and Hispanic children 25 times, more likely than White children to be shot in Chicago and other major US cities. They are at greater risk of being shot […]

RFK Jr says no need for COVID vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women

There was a lot going on with Covid last week. I had intended to write about NB.1.8.1, the new “variant under monitoring” by the WHO (World Health Organization), which has already become dominant in China, and the new US vaccine policy, but i just didn’t have time.   r.j. sigmund RFK Jr says no COVID vaccines […]

Defaulting Into Medicare Advantage Rather than Traditional Medicare Coverage

A bit of an explanation for this Health Affairs article. Today when you are eligible for Medicare Coverage, you are placed in Traditional Medicare. What would or could happen if every new enrollee were to be placed in Medicare Advantage instead of Traditional Medicare Coverage? The discussion centers on a two-year period in the beginning […]