- How the Romans chose new leaders: Of the 69 rulers of the unified Roman Empire, from Augustus (d. 14 CE) to Theodosius (d. 395 CE), 62% suffered violent death.
- Scott Sumner: Nationalism is hazardous to your health.
- Paul Ehrlich promoted more fake predictions on “60 Minutes.”
- WaPo: Social Security’s is using of archaic job-availability lists to deny benefits to obviously disabled people.
- WaPo: Social Security is imposing of astronomical penalties on people, many poor and disables, for spending checks mistakenly sent them by Social Security.
- The far more egregious financial malfeasance that WaPo missed: the huge fraud Social Security has committed against 13,000 plus widow(er)s who collectively have been swindled out of $130 million.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Article on Health Care Prices Goes Off the Rails
Have you ever noticed that liberal news outlets can trip over the facts and fail to see their relevance? Even in the rare event they stumble onto relevant facts they draw the wrong conclusions. CNBC just discovered (nearly 60 years after economists warned of the danger) that health insurance may have resulted in higher heath care prices. In the article, “How health insurance may have made health care more expensive,” the reporter quotes a variety of health policy analysts. Dr. Kongstvedt, an expert she interviewed, gave her all the information she needs to know.
Saturday Links
- Dr. Marty Makary: devastating critique of NIH and Fauci.
- How Twitter rigged the Covid debate.
- David Henderson solution for the Southwest airlines debacle: Let foreign carriers compete in our domestic market.
- Can you actually eat a discarded Christmas tree?
- No tailgating at the national College Football championship game? This is College Football’s answer to Ebeneezer Scrooge.
Health Plans Now Required to Provide Price Comparison Tools and Transparency
As of January 1st insurers and health plans are required to provide online tools to help enrollees estimate the cost of common medical services and procedures. As an aside, a future iteration of the law should also discourage medical professionals who work in hospitals or large practices controlled by private equity from only referring inside their systems without giving patients an opportunity to use the tools to shop elsewhere. I’ve never had a problem with doctors steering me to hospital-based services. Yet, I’ve heard horror stories about doctors being compensated or punish based on so-called keepage and leakage. This from Kaiser Health News: