Hardly a week goes by but what I read something critical of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. MA plans have become somewhat politicized with Democrats preferring government-run (traditional) Medicare, while Republicans like the idea of competition among private plans. Here is the thing that critics forget: MA plans are popular with seniors. They are growing and now cover more than half of all people enrolled in Medicare, about 31 million seniors and disabled individuals.
Saturday Links
- What the left and right are coming to agree on: Obamacare is encouraging consolidation and that is bad for patients.
- New study: If you count all welfare spending as income in kind to poor families, the real poverty rate is only 1.6%.
- FDA: A treatment for cancer may cause cancer.
- Avalere study: For patients in traditional Medicare use of skilled nursing homes was 12% higher and hospital inpatient care was 37% higher than for Medicare Advantage patients.
If all Medicare beneficiaries were in Medicare Advantage, the hospital trust fund would remain solvent until 2048.
FTC Moves Against Private Equity-Owned Physician Practice Cartels
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is beefing up its scrutiny of private equity investments in health care. This past September the FTC sued U.S. Anesthesia Partners (USAP) and the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in Houston federal court. The investors are accused of buying up a significant portion of large anesthesia practices in major Texas cities, allowing them to aggressively boost prices. FTC chair, Lina Khan, claims private equity investors “bought up the largest anesthesiology practices, then jacked up prices and entered into price-setting and market-allocation schemes.” Research has found that physician prices rose due to private equity investments.
Friday Links
- Biden v. Trump on Covid
- With symptoms, a colonoscopy is costly. Without symptoms, the test is free. The same thing is true of mammograms. It’s Obamacare.
- The healing power of music
- The Gates foundation achieved a remarkable reduction in childhood deaths in the middle of a war zone in Mali.
- Stats on Florida v California for people who care about the DeSantis/Newsom debate.
- An unflattering recap of the life of Henry Kissinger.