- Obamacare is making health insurance companies rich.
- Aaron Carroll reviews health care systems around the world in 10 minutes. Pretty good on the market-based systems in Switzerland and Singapore and the public/private systems in Australia and New Zealand. But when it comes to the UK and Canada, he fails to mention the extraordinary waits and health care rationing.
- Federal health bureaucracies operated by doctors and lawyers regulate about a fifth of our economy and a quarter of the federal budget – jobs that need the insights of economists.
- When the cost of prevention is included, the total loss from Covid was lower in the U.S. than in the EU.
- The CBO estimated that (Obamacare) exchange enrollees would cost federal taxpayers $6,850 each by 2021. The reality: $20,739, or over three times as much.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
WSJ: Why is it Such a Pain to see a Doctor?
I haven’t been to the doctor in several years because it’s such a hassle. All that time I’ve had health insurance that I have not used. The reason is because my old doctor retired (as did the previous one) and it’s too big a hassle to find a new one. The Wall Street Journal wrote about what a pain seeing a doctor has become.
The Good (and Bad) of Remote Patient Monitoring
When telephones began to appear in American homes and businesses physicians were one of the early adopters. As health insurance began to spread patients became more reluctant to pay out of pocket for services not covered by their health plans. For their part, health insurers were reluctant to reimburse for services outside the usual and customary practices. At some point midcentury doctors stopped routinely talking to their patients on the phone because nobody wanted to pay them for the service. If you stop and think about it nothing could be more inconvenient – and antiquated – than having to make a doctor’s appointment to record routine health information. What if your car speedometer could only reveal your speed once you pulled back into your driveway, and then only one snapshot in time during your most recent trip. Over time payer reluctance to reimburse for telemedicine began to slowly change and covid accelerated the transition.