- Since 2001, Medicare physician payments have fallen 30 percent behind the rate of inflation.
- The rising cost of Obamacare: CBO: subsidies will cost $1.3 trillion over the next decade and Medicaid expansion will cost another $1.4 trillion. (WSJ)
- Claim: Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are partly responsible for drug shortages. (Speculative)
- Medicare Part D enrollees: expect more restrictive formularies and utilization controls. Plans “may steer Medicare beneficiaries to use drugs that have to be administered by a doctor rather than pills that can be picked up at a pharmacy.”
- Three weaknesses with hospital “all payer” systems: (1) self-insured employers (most large companies) are exempt, (2) Medicare Advantage plans are exempt and (3) hospital participation must be voluntary.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Wednesday Links
- Against the American Cancer Society.
- What to know about LDL cholesterol.
- A carpenter ant can amputate the injured leg of a fellow ant. (NYT)
- At the end of your life a family member (medical surrogate) is more likely to override your preference for life extending care if you have dementia.
- The Biden-Harris administration has added regulatory costs of more than $40,000 per household. Among the items that are more expensive: microwave ovens, conventional ovens, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, dishwashers, clothes dryers, water heaters, air conditioners, ceiling fans, furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, lamps and light bulbs.
Are Medicaid Work Requirements a Success or a Failure? It Depends
Many Red States have proposed to add work requirements to Medicaid eligibility. The Georgia Medicaid program is currently the only state in the nation to have a work requirement as a condition of eligibility, but other states have expressed an interest.
Tuesday Links
- The Surgeon General is wrong: Social media is not like tobacco.
- These are tough times for the Columbian village whose only product is cocaine. (NYT)
- More on organ aging.
- Have you ever wondered where Congress got the constitutional power to make smoking marijuana illegal?
- “There is no such thing as a profitable public digital health company in the mainstream of care delivery or even insurance–unless of course you count Optum. Which means there’s almost certainly no profitable VC-backed private company either.”