- US health care spending has outpaced OECD spending since the passage of Obamacare.
- America is the only country where a majority of people think their fellow citizens are “morally bad.”
- Why are drug overdose deaths declining?
- How Trump’s latest pharma deals may undermine efforts to rein in drug costs.
- The Hospital at Home program is ready to scale.
Category: Affordable Care Act
Cost of Ron Wyden’s (moderate Democrat) Health Reforms
Iits mantra of “reversing Republican cuts” from last year’s budget reconciliation bill—which among other things would expand health coverage for illegal immigrants—would cost more than $1 trillion over a decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. The CBO has estimated that extending enhanced ObamaCare subsidies would cost $350 billion over the same period. In 2020, I calculated that repealing the firewall [between employer plans and subsidized Exchange coverage] would lead to $2.2 trillion in higher subsidy spending over a decade for the estimated 24 million people who would switch from employer coverage to the exchanges. Enacting such proposals would cost trillions without factoring in the new cost-sharing assistance Mr. Wyden outlines.
Shopping for Medical Care is a Hassle, but it Works
If more people began to act like consumers instead of passive patients, more health care providers would begin to compete for their business. For that matter, if more health care providers made it easier to shop for medical care, perhaps more patients would compare prices.
Wednesday Links – 15 July 2026
- The downside of some “health foods.”
- What markets were like 4,000 years ago.
- The cost of an ambulance ride.
- Obamacare fraud cut in half this year.
- “Claude connects CarePath directly to underlying claims and care systems, turning fragmented health data into recommended next steps for care teams.”
- Provider taxes generate roughly $37 billion annually for states — about 18% of the nonfederal share of Medicaid spending nationwide.