In December, 54,000 people in England had to wait more than 12 hours for an emergency admission…. The average wait time for an ambulance to attend a “category 2” condition – like a stroke or heart attack – exceeded 90 minutes. There were 1,474 (20%) more excess deaths in the week ending December 30 than the 5-year average….
China has Health Savings Accounts
And they have had them for a decade. As the New York Times explains:
Companies typically contribute to the pools an amount equal to as much as 9.8 percent of a worker’s salary…. The employee insurance pools currently forward about a third of the money they receive from employers to personal health accounts, and spend the remaining two-thirds on hospitalizations and other expenses. Employees also put about 2 percent of their paychecks into their health accounts until they retire.
While the pooled employee funds in many cities are depleted, personal health accounts across China have accumulated more than $130 billion.
Monday Links
- After the government took steps to raise the price and restrict the supply, opioid consumption and overdoses went up. Casey Mulligan explains why.
- Sally Satel on “Social Justice Therapy.”
- Health care worker shortages: Half of the states, including all in New England and most in the Midwest, have health care employment lower than three years ago.
- Who does AARP really represent? It backed the IRA bill – taking $280 billion away from Medicare and spending the money on heath insurance subsidies for the well-to-do and special interest green energy projects.
- U.S. Energy Dept: the coronavirus most likely came from a lab leak.
Amazon Wants to be Your Primary Care Provider
What living man or woman has done more to make your life better than any other person? This is probably not something you have thought about. Most people would likely say their parents, although my parents are no longer living. I’ve thought about this question and I have a definitive answer: Jeff Bezos. Yes, Jeff Bezos. An Amazon truck stops at my house on a daily basis dropping off purchases, sometimes multiple items per day. In the early 1990s who would have thought that in the future you could go to a website and choose among 353 million products, most of which are priced lower than you can find locally. Furthermore, the prices elsewhere are lower than they otherwise would be because of the competition created by Amazon. In addition, these products are delivered to your doorstep, sometimes only a day or two after you ordered them.