There is considerable waste, fraud and abuse in federal and state health care programs. Part of the problem is the government relies on the Honor System when people are banned from Medicare and Medicaid. Those banned are expected to self-report their criminal histories or infractions when moving to a new company. According to a Kaiser Health News investigation:
Wednesday Links
- Man harassed by collection agencies over an unpaid $2.57 hospital bill.
- Socialized medicine in Oregon: Measure 111 amends the state constitution to establish “the obligation of the state to ensure that every resident of Oregon has access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care as a fundamental right.” (WSJ)
- How colleges deceive students about the real cost of their enrollment.
- Paul Ryan’s plan to save America’s finances. Social Security reform is bold. Health care reforms are Meh.
Does Grandma Need a roommate? (Alternatives to Long Term Care)
Nearly 70% of seniors will need long-term care at some point in their lives. There are nearly 66,000 long-term care (LTC) facilities in the United States, with a total of about 1 million licensed beds. That will not be nearly enough as the Baby Boomer generation approaches the period in their lives of declining health. The average LTC resident is a woman, accounting for two-thirds of residents. Women stay an average of 3.7 years, compared to men who stay 2.2 years, on average. The reason women outnumber men two-to-one and spend more time in nursing homes is due to women outliving their husbands.
Tuesday Links
- Snakebites are worse than we thought: They kill between 81,000 and 138,000 people each year, and leave another 400,000 with permanent disabilities.
- Contra PhARMA: Profit growth at the largest pharmaceutical companies—driven by price hikes on older, branded, monopoly drugs—rarely leads to the development of innovative new medicines, according to a FREOPP study.
- Heritage study: The federal government spent $279 billion of taxpayers’ money on improper payments in 2021 alone. That is more than $2,000 per U.S. household.
- Does coffee drinking increase your life expectancy? Or, do we never seem to tire of bad studies?