I’m a fan of high-deductible health plans, but the premiums under Obamacare are too high compared to the benefits. Plans should be able to offer annual and lifetime caps on benefits to reduce premiums further. Obamacare’s ban on annual and lifetime benefits is what allowed drug prices and the price of some medical procedures to reach the stratosphere. In addition, with hospitals acquiring physician practices many consumers are being steered to hospital owned facilities which have higher prices.
Category: Affordable Care Act
Tuesday Links – 5 May 2026
- Highest paying specialties: orthopedics and orthopedic surgery: $611,000, cardiology: $575,000, and radiology: $571,000.
- Why are 90% of people right-handed? (Forbes)
- Cigna leaves Obamacare. Only 2 of the last 12 years were profitable.
- David Friedman explains adverse selection.
- The ratio of national debt (held by the public) to GDP passed 100% for the first time since World War 2.
Friday Links – 1 May 2026
- Surprise: If you overstated your income to qualify for (Obamacare) subsidies last year (they averaged just over $6,000 per person), you will now be required to pay them back.
- Study: Retirement accelerates cognitive decline. (HT: Tyler)
- Why fruit doesn’t taste like it used to,
- What can we learn about humans from the study of chimpanzee warfare?
- “Skinny labeling” occurs when generic companies seek regulatory approval to market a medicine for a specific use, but not other patented uses for which a brand-name drug is prescribed. (Statnews)
- Medicaid and SNAP lost nearly $50 billion to fraud last year.