- Medicare Advantage enrollees are more likely to get preventive care. Other comparisons with traditional Medicare were mixed.
- GOP’s approach to drug pricing.
- How reliable are blood tests for detecting cancer? (WSJ)
- The case for fasting.
- Even the Biden administration admits, “No one is serving time in federal prison solely for the crime of marijuana possession.” (WSJ)
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Another Hit Job on MA Plans
New York Times reporters Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz have managed to set a high bar (even for the Grey Lady) for those who aspire to mislead readers on health economics. They manage (1) to assert that most major Medicare Advantage insurers have been sued for fraud; (2) to warn how bad that will be in the future as more seniors enroll in these plans; without (3) ever mentioning that there is even more fraud in regular Medicare – the alternative to MA plans.
Mass hysteria: 90% of Americans Believe US is Suffering a Mental Health Crisis
According to a new survey from CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation an overwhelming majority of Americans believe the United States is suffering through a mental health crisis.
Nine out of 10 adults said they believed that there’s a mental health crisis in the US today. Asked to rate the severity of six specific mental health concerns, Americans put the opioid epidemic near the top, with more than two-thirds of people identifying it as a crisis rather than merely a problem. More than half identified mental health issues among children and teenagers as a crisis, as well as severe mental illness in adults.
The broad concern is well-founded, rooted in both personal experience and national trends.
The $1 Million a Year Drug Club is Growing
On September 30 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, Relyvrio, a drug to slow the progression of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The approval was controversial. The FDA usually requires at least two clinical trials but will on occasion accept one trial if the trial was robust and the data provides persuasive evidence…