- The four minute mile effect.
- Do CT scans cause cancer?
- Trump: why do small molecule drugs get fewer years before they’re subject to pricing negotiations with Medicare, compared to biologics? (StatNews)
- “The total amount of microbial cells in the marine sediment subsurface is estimated to be 2.9 x 10 [to the 29th] cells. This is about 10,000 times more than the estimated number of stars in the universe.”
- After the Trump tax cuts the share of total taxes paid by the top 1% went up.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Elevance Study: Medicare Advantage is Reducing Overall Medicare Spending
The study found that a 10-percentage-point increase in Medicare Advantage (MA) penetration is associated with a 0.8–1.9 percent decrease in total Medicare spending per capita. This translates to a 10-year savings estimate of approximately $59–$144 billion (in 2021 dollars)….
Source: Health Affairs
Would You Pay Extra for Better Access to a Physician?
There are no easy solutions to ease the physician shortage. If doctors agreed to work 12-hour days, seven days a week that would about double the capacity. Of course that’s not going to happen. Or doctors could cut down the length of each visit from 10-15 minutes to 5-7 minutes. I doubt that would really work well either. But what if you could pay to jump to the head of the line? Or pay extra to make the line much shorter? That is possible, if not controversial.
Thursday Links
- What the federal government does with your money and why that’s a problem.
- “These studies find that ACO “gross” savings (which do not account for incentive payments to ACOs) are modest to non-existent, while “net” savings (which account for incentive payments) are vanishingly small or actually represent losses to CMS).”
- Against Kennedy’s autism investigation. (Bloomberg)
- Corruption by Centene and other bad actors.
- The “success sequence” for avoiding poverty: graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and wait until marriage to have children – A DEBATE.