- Kaiser does a deep dive into doctors billing for email.
- Of eight states that have not recovered job losses for Covid, seven are blue.
- Joe Biden’s budget: like the original (2020) budget, this one would lower output and worker wages. Also the $400,000 threshold (below which no taxes) is not indexed—so eventually the Biden taxes will reach everyone on the income ladder.
- Biden’s budget v. the House Republican budget.
- A completely bureaucratic view of when patient preferences should be honored.
- Claude 3 Opus Fails Steve Landsburg’s Economics Exam.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Another Example of How Hospitals Employing Physicians Harms Patients
In the game of who can gouge patients and employer health plans more, hospital systems are mailing their physician employees’ patients ominous news, hoping to force insurers to pay more for services. Your physicians likely do not share in any higher fees, although you may have higher cost sharing for their services. I have yet to get such an email or letter in the mail, but I have read several articles over the years when various Dallas-area hospital systems talk to the media about dropping BlueCross of Texas or something similar.
Tuesday Links
- How big a problem are counterfeit drugs?
- Republicans don’t like Biden’s new budget.
- Biden gaffes: “We added more to the national debt than any president in American history.” And “Send me to Congress.”
- Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands allow doctors to commit [euthanasia], so have become as permissive as realistically possible.
Who Wants to Live Forever? (Money Probably Helps)
Weight loss drugs are all the rage these days. They were originally developed for severe diabetes that does not respond to older therapies. Then it was discovered that they also cause effortless weight loss as a beneficial byproduct. The data is not yet conclusive but by aiding in weight loss they may also increase longevity by reducing weight-related heart disease. They are pricy. The holy grail for drug makers and obese people alike is to get enough evidence of health benefits to force health insurers to pay for them.