Mark Rubin

Gotta Love Those Rs on Health Care

July 15, 2017
Mark Rubin

Gotta Love Those Rs on Health Care

Ted Cruz

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)

Republicans love them their free markets. In response to any problem, we hear about markets. Free markets require rational, knowledgeable buyers and sellers, acting freely. Advocates tell us free markets will always allow us to achieve optimum outcomes. That’s the mantra!

Rational

Rational? Easy it is to talk about too much spending in the last year of people’s lives, but if it’s your mom or dad, well … that’s different. I’ve been there, at both ends of the spectrum. When you love someone, don’t expect rational judgments.

Knowledgeable

Knowledgeable? Uh, no! We spend a fortune educating and training health care providers, and I say we because, while students pay

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The Trump Administration: Farce? Tragedy?

July 11, 2017
Mark Rubin

Mr. President

The Trump Administration: Farce? Tragedy?

Today, Ezra Klein wrote The Trump administration isn’t a farce. It’s a tragedy. Mr. Klein is the Editor-in-Chief for Vox, and one of our very best writers. He’s also only 33, born 117 months, to the day, after President Richard Nixon waved and left the White House grounds on Marine One on August 9, 1974. Read the next paragraph, please, for his age matters.

In his excellent piece Mr. Klein posits that “this must be what it was like to live through Watergate.” His statement begs the question, for as a 33-year-old he was not around. I was!

Honestly, Trump-i-stan feels much, much worse than Watergate. President Nixon was bent, evil, and surely mad.

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Single-Payer Health Care Saves Money

July 9, 2017
Mark Rubin

Single-Payer Health Care Saves Money

Cornell University Economics Professor Robert H. Frank wrote Why Single-Payer Health Care Saves Money recently. He offers a simple thesis: single-payer saves money.

Yes, taxes will increase. However, individual insurance premiums go away, as do most out-of-pocket expenses. Professor Frank estimates a 30% aggregate health care cost reduction. From where? Lower administrative costs. No advertising expenses. And the government can make more favorable deals with providers and pharma.

B-b-but, Medicare’s crashing. Not true, in fact. More to the point, though, Medicare self-selects older, sicker people. A pool which includes everybody captures the tens of millions of healthy people whose health care costs are minimal.

Without doubt, single-payer presents challenges. Daniel Kahneman, psychologist, Nobel

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Big News!

August 30, 2015
Mark Rubin

News! Big news, at least for me, and it relates to my work life. The news comes in three parts:

  1. Since August 1, 2015, I have been General Counsel for Pima Medical Institute;
  2. As of August 31, 2015—tomorrow—I will no longer be practicing law at Mesch, Clark & Rothschild, P.C.; and
  3. On September 1, 2015, I will be practicing law at the Law Office of Mark Rubin.

Before I go forward, thanks are in order. I was happy and successful in late 2009. Nervous about being a solo practitioner, after my building flooded and I was sick for a week, leaving me about three weeks behind on my work; still, happy! Along came MCR, with a terrific

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Working (Mark Rubin)

April 12, 2015
Mark Rubin

I’m Mark Rubin, and I blog here at Mark Rubin Writes. Months ago I wrote about two friends’ work day lives. I intended to do more interviews and posts but I’m too short on time right now. I can, however, write about my work life without spending time interviewing myself.

Most days, I’m at work by 7 a.m. There’s rarely a work-related reason for that; rather, I’m an early riser, I like to get out in front of situations, and I enjoy the solitude.

You rise early or you don’t, and you like a quiet setting or you don’t. (One of my oldest friends is a trial court judge, and he’d go batty on an appellate court, writing all day

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