John C. Goodman – Page 220 – The Goodman Institute Health Blog

Washington Doesn’t Understand Obamacare

Posted on January 1, 2024 by John C. Goodman

Both parties are getting it wrong. And that’s surprising. Don’t these folks ever talk to the voters?

In the House of Representatives, the GOP’s “number-one priority for health care reform” is lowering health insurance premiums. However, 8 in 10 enrollees in the exchanges pay $10 a month or less. For a family with average income, the premium is usually zero.

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Can We Reduce Health Care Costs with More and Better Primary Care?

Posted on January 1, 2024 by John C. Goodman

Doctors cannot afford to offer uncompensated services. Nor can they raise their fees. The only way they can pay the rent and other costs is by seeing more patients and spending less time with each of them.

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Saturday Links

Posted on December 30, 2023December 30, 2023 by John C. Goodman

The case against taxing the wealthy to save Social Security.
AEI’s budget projection: “We project that debt-to-GDP will be 135 percent in 2032 and 268 percent in 2052, compared to CBO’s 112 percent and 177 percent, respectively.
Drugs to treat obesity and diabetes: “We estimate that net prices received by drugmakers are 48–78 percent lower than list prices… faced by some consumers.”
Diabetes contributed roughly $296 billion to excess health care spending in 2023.
Social Security replaces about 54 percent of the pre-retirement earnings of an average wage worker. (This is higher than what Social Security tells us.)

Friday Links

Posted on December 29, 2023December 31, 2023 by John C. Goodman

How UnitedHealth used secret rules to keep Medicare Advantage patients out of rehab.
Former NIH director on lockdowns: You attach a zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people’s lives, ruins the economy, and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never quite recovered.
Medicare Advantage enrollment: As of 2021, 59% of Black Medicare beneficiaries, 67% of Hispanic beneficiaries, and 55% of Asian and Pacific Islander beneficiaries were enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan as compared with 43% of White beneficiaries. Left out of the headline: These disparities mirror the same disparities found in traditional Medicare.
Pandemic unemployment insurance benefits: Once they ended, the flow of people from unemployment to work increased by two thirds.
How Medicare determines what it pays for medical care.