- How UnitedHealth used secret rules to keep Medicare Advantage patients out of rehab.
- Former NIH director on lockdowns: You attach a zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people’s lives, ruins the economy, and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never quite recovered.
- Medicare Advantage enrollment: As of 2021, 59% of Black Medicare beneficiaries, 67% of Hispanic beneficiaries, and 55% of Asian and Pacific Islander beneficiaries were enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan as compared with 43% of White beneficiaries. Left out of the headline: These disparities mirror the same disparities found in traditional Medicare.
- Pandemic unemployment insurance benefits: Once they ended, the flow of people from unemployment to work increased by two thirds.
- How Medicare determines what it pays for medical care.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
How Long Do You Want to live… with Alzheimer’s?
Several close family members developed Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia before they died. They all required institutional care. Alzheimer’s is an insidious disease that robs the victims of the person they were. It robs them of the people they loved as they forget the names and faces of family and friends. It robs them of their dignity as they can no longer care for themselves and must be fed, bathed, clothed and toileted like a toddler. It sometimes robs them of their legacy, as their care is so costly they have to bankrupt themselves before qualifying for Medicaid coverage.
Wednesday Links
- To stay healthy, eat nuts, beans and whole grains.
- Can germs be good for you? One study says yes.
- Drug shortages are affecting half a million consumers. The problem has persisted for more than 20 years.
- Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s bill would abolish “disparate treatment based on ethnicity or creed” and “compelled speech” at colleges and universities that receive federal money.
- The US has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries. Could lack of civility and empathy be the reason?