Cavalcade of Risk – post election

This two week-post-election edition of the Cavalcade of Risk combines a bit of prognostication about the directional impact of the political winds, a lot about the economy and impact thereof, and a few posts that manage to be both topical and intriguing-ly random.
upfront disclaimer – somehow I managed to offer to host CoR in the middle of the annual workers comp conference – an incredibly poor decision on my part as this is a rather busy time for your author. That’s my excuse for the brevity of this edition. But, hey, it’s a quick read!
First, here’s Julie Ferguson’s contribution – warning, it addresses the burning question – what to do if you own a bar and the bartender’s nude?
We’ll begin with health-related submissions, and no better way to kick off the CoR (and over the ant hill) than with Bob Laszewski’s post on the failure of the free market in health insurance. Bob’s oservation is straight forward – since HillaryCare went up in flames, the free market had fifteen years to prove itself. It failed miserably. No excuses and no whining.
What’s next? Louise takes Bob’s logic another step with her contribution, wherein she makes the case for allowing individuals to ‘buy in’ to Medicare.
Maggie and Niko of Health Beat follow up with a discussion of the possibility of a dramatic restructuring of physician compensation – shifting more dollars to primary care and away from specialists.
Nancy Germond from D&B (corporate bloggers are coming!) contributes her views on the likely implications of a Blue Washington.
I have a somewhat different perspective; my take is there will indeed be health reform, although it will not be in a single massive bill.
Economist Jason Shafrin reveals one of the many obstacles to meaningful health reform – patient pressure as docs who actually use decision support systems find that patients feel, well, that this makes them less ‘physicianly’.
Khan contributes a post on an issue of concern to those of us with older progeny; Health Insurance Options for Students.
Long-time contributor and pharma expert David Williams is of the opinion that big pharma may be preparing to shoot itself in the foot. Alvaro Fernandez continues our brief sojourn into the world of pharma – his post details the new sleep therapy – and it isn’t a pill.
Henry Stern, LUTCF, CBC informs us about what happens when politicians go too far in expanding programs – and it isn’t anything good.
In the non-health-related world, LAL believes the next meltdown will be in auto debt, pointing out that the average car loan is about $25k..
A very well done review of the current liquidity crisis and how it impacts the financial environment is up at VoxEU. The
http://www.workerscompinsider.com/archives/000963.html
Onto the property and casualty insurance world…
Eric Turkewitz has done a masterful job researching a key liability issue, personal injury due to President Bush’s Dog Biting a White House Reporter (Can Bush Be Sued?).
Jon Coppelman somehow draws a link between frozen embryos and workers comp. Really.
Workers Compensation expert James Moore reports on some interesting developments in West Virginia’s Workers Comp program, and a state-run but commercially insured risk pool for problem industries.