- 10 million Swedes have private health insurance, with 60% paid by employers. “The advantages are quicker consultations and avoiding long waiting lines.”
- Dual eligibles (Medicare plus Medicaid) do better in Medicare Advantage special needs plans than in traditional Medicare.
- Arnold Kling on all the Covid mistakes and who made them.
- Is the CDC causing patients needless pain?
- Study: Midlife crises are real.
The Changing Demographics of Covid Deaths
People are still dying from Covid although who is dying and how many has changed as we enter the third year of the pandemic. Covid has always been a killer of elderly people, but it’s also taken a heavy toll on younger people who were considered essential workers and could not shelter in place. This is data from California:
From April 2020 through December 2021, Covid killed an average of 3,600 people a month, making it the third-leading cause of death in the state cumulatively for that time period, behind heart disease and cancer. From December 2020 through February 2021, it briefly overtook heart disease as the leading cause of death, taking the lives of more than 38,300 Californians in just three months. During its most recent peak, in January 2022, Covid took about 5,900 lives.
Wednesday Links
- New book: Why people are the ultimate resource.
- Subsidizing kids: Hungary exempts mothers of four or more children from income taxes for life. (The Economist, gated)
- Why do we need an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health? Because the National Institutes of Health is too cautious. (NYT, gated)
- Life expectancy in China surpasses the US.
- Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness program is worse than you think.
- The right way to pay tuition for students who need a loan.
Government Recommends Free Anxiety Screening
Yesterday I wrote about how only 20% of therapists accept health insurance. The reasons are many but the primary reason is that therapists can earn much more by only accepting patients willing to pay cash out of pocket for their services. Health plans often reimburse a fraction of therapists regular fees and require much more patient information before approving treatments. Imagine my surprises today when I read that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) issued new guidance recommending Adults, ages 19 to 64 get routine screened for anxiety. This past April the Task force recommended screening children and teens, ages 8 to 18. The Task Force issued no guidance for older adults ages 65 or older.