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.
Category: Consumer-Driven Health Care
Saturday Links
- Pew Foundation “striking findings.”
- In addition to drug shortages, the US has been experiencing medical device shortages.
- Free covid tests by mail are back.
- CNN: Covid-19 vaccines have saved more than 3 million lives in US. But no mention of Donald Trump or Operation Warp Speed. CTUP: this is like trumpeting the polio vaccine and not mentioning Jonas Salk.
- A defense of Canadian euthanasia: The average age of those who seek assisted death is 76.3, and 65% have cancer.
- All the bad things in the Hippocratic Oath that I bet you don’t know about.
Friday Links
- As many as 250,000 people die every year because they are misdiagnosed in the emergency room, with doctors failing to identify serious medical conditions like stroke, sepsis and pneumonia.
- Against a carbon tax.
- Can entrepreneurs solve the problem of hospital price transparency?
- Can you raise a family on one income?
- Why private entrepreneurs are sometimes better than public health bureaucracies.
Investigation: The Feds System To Ban Bad Actors from Medicare Does Not Work
There is considerable waste, fraud and abuse in federal and state health care programs. Part of the problem is the government relies on the Honor System when people are banned from Medicare and Medicaid. Those banned are expected to self-report their criminal histories or infractions when moving to a new company. According to a Kaiser Health News investigation: