- “High blood pressure is responsible for more deaths than any other risk factor, including smoking.”
- Why banning “bad foods” from food stamp purchases won’t work.
- The IRA bill: most beneficiaries are unlikely to see a substantial reduction in their out-of-pocket costs from the federal price setting, and for many, costs will actually increase.
- “Before members of the new Congress even walk through the doors of the Capitol to be sworn in, almost every dollar of revenue for the year has already been committed.”
- Covid was bad for physician incomes.
Category: Consumer-Driven Health Care
The Weight Loss Gold Rush Created a New Type of Claim Jumper
There is a new Gold Rush of sorts that is quite different than the one that began in California in 1848. Weight loss drugs, like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Saxena, are selling like hotcakes, with demand far outstripping supply. These drugs are lucrative, costing $1,000 a month or more, depending on the rebate or health plan discount.
Tuesday Links
- A pill to treat alcoholism exists.
- Why is there shortage of pediatricians? Because they get paid less than every other specialty. (NYT) I will have more to say about this in the future.
- “Nothing correlates more with homelessness rates than high housing costs. And nothing drives up housing costs like government restrictions on building housing.”
- Are there so many cesarean births in December because that lowers the parents’ income taxes? From a tax perspective, “A New Year’s Eve baby is better than a New Year’s Day baby.”
Why Walmart (and Others) Failed to Disrupt Primary Care
Many people assume that hospitals are dinosaurs, with little knowledge of competition. They often assume what we need is a real competitor to enter the health care business. While both arguments are true it’s far more complicated than that. Hospitals do compete with each other, just not in ways that are beneficial to their customers.