Author of Obamacare study says expanded Medicaid means more ER visits

Author of Obamacare study says expanded Medicaid means more ER visits

A study published in Science finds that over the course of 18 months, emergency room visits increased among low-income individuals in the Portland, Ore. area who received access to Medicaid via a 2008 state lottery, as compared with those who did not receive access.

Guest: 

Katherine Baicker
Co-author of the study and a professor of health economics at the Harvard School of Public Health (@HarvardHSPH).

James Robinson
Professor of health economics at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

Read more about the study, via The Washington Post.

Could concealed carry permits help reduce gun crime?

A study published in November in Applied Economics Letters looked at state-level murder rates between 1980 and 2009 and found that "states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states."

Guest:

Mark Gius
The author of the study and an economist at Quinnipiac University.

Are Al-Qaeda fighters undoing what U.S. soldiers fought for in Iraq?

Guests:

Stephen McInerney
Executive director of the Project of Middle East Democracy (@POMEDwire). 

Daniel Serwer
Professor and senior fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a former State Department official.

Read about how Al-Qaeda fighters captured Fallujah, Iraq on Friday, via The Washington Post.

Are claims that the United States is in decline valid?

Guest:

Josef Joffe
Author of "The Myth of America's Decline: Politics, Economics, and a Half Century of False Prophecies". Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution (@HooverInst). 

Chris Kluwe alleges the Minnesota Vikings fired him because of his public support for same-sex marriage

Guest:

Dave Zirin @EdgeOfSports 
Sports editor at The Nation. Host of Edge of Sports Radio.

Read Zirin's essay on Kluwe, via The Nation, and learn more about an academic scandal involving 19 football players at the University of North Carolina, via The New York Times.

Documentary explores an adoptive family’s challenges

"The Dark Matter of Love" is a documentary that tells the story of Cheryl and Claudio Diaz of Wisconsin, parents of one biological daughter, who adopted three younger children from Russia. The Diaz family consulted developmental psychologists as they encountered difficulties integrating the adopted children into their family life.

Guests:

Cheryl and Claudio Diaz
Subject of "The Dark Matter of Love" (@darkmatterlove).

Nicole Millirin
Clinical therapist who worked with the Diaz family.

"The Dark Matter of Love" will air on Al Jazeera America Presents on Sunday at 9pm ET.

Note: Tonight our guest host is Sheila MacVicar (@Sheila_MacVicar), correspondent for Al Jazeera America. Antonio Mora will return on Jan. 6. 

Tune in to Consider This at 10pm ET/7pm PT on Al Jazeera America. Join the conversation during the show by following our social accounts: @AJConsiderThis, @HermelaTV, and @AMoraTV.