Dominique Vervoort and Ge Bai analyzed the percentage change in average charges and compared them to average Medicare Part B (fee-for-service) payments for 51 specialties. Data was drawn from the years 2010 to 2019, with the figures adjusted for inflation. The authors found a positive association between the change in charges and change in Medicare payments (see the figure). This was not unexpected. Charges are often pegged to Medicare in some way. There were two outliers. (This too should come as no surprise). Emergency care and anesthesia charges grew faster and were above the trend line.
Author: Devon Herrick
Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care
There are a variety of reasons, both good and bad.
The bottom line: U.S. health care is tailored to an affluent population that suffers from the afflictions of an affluent population. The solution is more individual control.
HT: Chris Pope, Manhattan Institute, writing in City Journal.
Daylight Savings Time is bad for your health
Daylight Savings Time (DST) was first adopted by Germany in 1916 to conserve fuel during World War I. Over the next couple years, it was adopted in Europe and by the United States. More than a century later, scientists have begun to realize that its negative effects on safety and human health outweighs any benefits that it provides. As an aside, I wonder what took scientists 100 years to figure that out.
The Mis-Match that Prevents Thousands of MDs from Working
Imagine spending eight years after high school studying for your dream career. You apply to every medical school you can think of. If you don’t get into a cheaper state school, you apply to more expensive private medical schools. Some aspiring physicians even apply to schools in other countries. When you finally graduate you must then apply for graduate medical education (GME) training programs, which are required before you can practice medicine in all 50 states.