- Don Berwick and fellow travelers: “The Affordable Care Act was a major step forward in expanding access to health care in the US.”
- The reality: We are not getting any additional health care. One study found that there has been a small uptick in doctor visits by those at the bottom of the income ladder, offset by insignificant changes for the rest of the population. Doctor visits per capita for the country as a whole have actually gone down, and visits to the emergency room haven’t changed.
- How the act of “reporting” changed radically in response to Donald Trump.
- Why online betting soared after a Supreme Court ruling and why that matters for public health.
- What happens if Republicans don’t pass a tax bill.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Monday Links
- Tabarrok: hire, don’t fire at the FDA.
- Using international data, a study argues that we spend too little on public school teachers in the U.S. (Note: you can be spending too little on teachers and too much on schools at the same time.)
- ACO’s face incentives to up code and avoid sicker patients.
- Commercial health insurance: higher costs and higher dissatisfaction.
WSJ: How to Negotiate Your Medical Bills Lower
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Joel Stein explains how to not pay your medical bills. The article, written tongue-in-cheek, is amusing but also touches on a serious topic.
Don’t Gut the FDA, Reform It!
The New York Times reports that new hires, who were supposed to beef up departments reviewing food safety, artificial intelligence, robotic surgical devices and insulin delivery systems, among many others, were cut this week. This is arbitrary because the medical device and drug industry pays user fees that support the operations of the FDA, not taxpayers.