In late 2020 an unemployed North Carolina bartender and his wife were visiting relatives in Wyoming when the man fell seriously ill. He was quickly airlifted to the University of Colorado Hospital outside Denver, where he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a form of blood cancer. His insurance paid that air ambulance bill, from Wyoming to Colorado, deeming it medically necessary.
Read the article in Kaiser Health News
A bill recently passed the Senate that would make Daylight Savings Time (DST) permanent, observed year around. It would do away with Standard Time. This is not the first time Congress has flirted with making DST year around. On December 14, 1973 Congress voted to make DST year around for two years. President Nixon signed the bill on December 15. The United States also tried year around DST during World War II. Supposedly people hated it.
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.
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.