- Medicaid enrollment to top 100 million as early as next month.
- Catholic Charities and other NGOs have been transporting illegal immigrants all over the country, with taxpayer funding. Who knew?
- What’s in the Omnibus: ending the pandemic policy that prohibited states from taking people off Medicaid, easing Medicare payment cuts for doctors and potentially extending telehealth policies for two years.
- Health care rationing: CVS is limiting shoppers to just two items of children’s pain and fever medicines, both in-store and online, while Walgreens is restricting online shoppers to six items. (Bloomberg)
- Global coal consumption is set to match its all-time high, because of environmentalists’ aversion to much cleaner natural gas.
- Yglesias: Alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
Only 14% of Cancers Found Through Preventive Screening
I am overdue for a colonoscopy. I’ve been meaning to schedule one for over a year but when the time comes to do so I put it off because it’s not the most pleasant procedure to endure. Colonoscopies for colorectal cancer are one of the few cancer screenings recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the others are breast, cervical and lung cancer. However, I just read that only 14.1% of cancers are caught through screening.
Tuesday Links
- Evidence against The Great Barrington Declaration’s idea of focused protection.
- The feds are cracking down on Medicare Advantage plans.
- CDC: Flu season appears to be normal, despite the media hype.
- CTUP study: Government payments and free health care benefits can pay more than the annual equivalent of a $100,000 job in three states, and the equivalent of an $80,000 a year job in 13 states.
Ask Your Doctor Four Questions to Avoid Unnecessary Care
I went to a urologist a couple years ago. He examined me and told me he was 85% sure what I had was not serious and would resolve on its own. However, if I wanted to be 100% sure, there was an in-office test ($450) and an MRI ($350) that he could order for me. I got the feeling he was probably really 95% sure I was fine. The urologist likely offered additional tests out of defensive medicine and the fact that some patients desire more care than others. I was cash pay so I opted out of it.