- HSAs for gig workers.
- NYT buries the lead: in an article about DOGE, we learn in the 43rd paragraph that the government identified $236 billion of fraudulent government payments in 2023.
- Falling fertility is becoming a problem the entire world.
- Michael Cannon: the case against RFK Jr.
- People can use food stamps to purchase candy, ice cream, soft drinks, donuts, chips, and even birthday cakes – but not a rotisserie chicken.
Category: Authors
WSJ: Insurers Deny 850 Million Claims Annually, 1% are Appealed with 75% Success
The Wall Street Journal reports that health insurers deny 850 million claims a year. The small number of people who appeal often win.
Friday Links
- Tomas Philipson: My calculations suggest that Medicare price controls will actually increase total health care spending by at least $30 billion over 20 years.
- More than 50,000 hospitals now qualify as “safety net” institutions that qualify for 340B status.
- A 2022 survey estimated that 100 million Americans carry medical debt, and nearly 80 percent of medical debt is held by households with zero or negative net worth.
- While increases in profits and cash reserves of nonprofit hospitals grow, charity care does not.
- KFF: health insurers operating through the federal exchanges denied 1 in 5 claims in 2023.
- “The cash price for a colonoscopy within a ten-mile radius of midtown Manhattan ranges from a low of $580 to a high of $4,355.”
Small Towns Recruiting Physicians are Offering Cash and Free Office Rent
What do people do, who live in small towns or rural areas, when they need medical care? They drive to where there are doctors and hospitals. A family member sent me a text the other day saying he was in a regional town 200 miles from his home for a checkup regarding the surgery he got a year ago in that same town.