- Covid infection creates immunity at least equal to two doses of mRNA vaccine, according to a meta-analysis of 65 studies from 19 countries.
- Why did it take two decades for a generic competitor for the nation’s leading (and costly) arthritis drug to become avaible to consumers?
- Benefit of placebos: “taking a sugar pill can be beneficial even when you know it’s a sugar pill.” (WSJ)
- Why can’t we have one-stop-shopping for safety net benefits for the poor, instead of multiple siloed benefits?
- Study: 76% of homeless people in high-income countries suffer from a mental disorder, with substance use disorders and schizophrenia being the most common. HT: Arnold Kling
- In Utah, it is legal to forcibly sterilize a person with a disability.
Author: John C. Goodman
Monday Links
- George Halvorson defends Obamacare (but mainly a reformed Medicare Advantage program).
- Does the obese character in The Whale really deserve our sympathy?
- Medicare Advantage enrollment is now 31.2 million – roughly half of the Medicare population.
- DOL: The low-end estimate for improper (Covid) unemployment insurance payments – mostly fraud – is $191 billion.
- Estimates attribute 15 – 30 percent of total national health spending to administration, with at least half ($300 – $600 billion a year) demonstrated to be ineffective or wasteful.
How Much Waste in Health Care?
A recent analysis from the Peterson Foundation found that the U.S. is spending over $1,000 per person on administrative costs, “five times more than the average of other wealthy countries and more than we spend on preventive or long-term healthcare.”
A piece by Dr. Robert Kocher published in 2013 in the Harvard Business Review found that over 22 years (1990– 2012), there was a 75% increase in the number of workers in our nation’s health system, but the overwhelming majority (95%) were in non-doctor positions. In fact, for every one doctor there were sixteen non-doctor workers, and 10 of those were “purely administrative and management staff, receptionists and information clerks, and office clerks.” The sheer size of the administrative arm of American health care had become daunting.
Saturday Links
- The (health ) case against homelessness.
- Lead poisoning is a worldwide problem.
- The negative relationship between obesity and income is almost entirely driven by women. The relationship between income and weight is flat for men.
- Finally the press gets its comeuppance in the Columbia Journalism Review for promoting the Trump-Russia hoax.
- JAMA study: Medicare Advantage plans have higher quality and lower cost than traditional Medicare.