Patients need the knowledge and the tools to easily compare prices. There are numerous examples of how to turn patients into shoppers. Stakeholders just have not been forced to take the necessary steps.
Category: Public Insurance
Facts About Long Term Care
About 29 percent of people 65 and over in the United States report at least some limitation with their ability to conduct daily activities.
The majority of elderly people receiving long-term care receive unpaid, informal care at home.
In 2018, there were an estimated 1.9 million care workers providing formal help to those 65 and over.
Immigrants make up a nearly 40 percent of home health aides, 28 percent of personal care aides, and 21 percent of nurse assistants.
A much larger group of people provide informal, largely unpaid, care to the elderly. An estimated 10.6 million people, usually family members who have no training in caring for the elderly, provide long-term support to people 65 and over.
Medicaid is the largest public payer of long-term care for the elderly.
Only 15 percent of the persons 65 and over have purchased such insurance.
OECD estimates suggest that out-of-pocket costs of long-term care after public support are as much as 60 percent of median income for those with moderate needs and 80 percent for those with severe needs.
Source: Econofact
WSJ: Big Pharma Learns Patients Can Act Like Consumers
Weight-loss drugs are a special case in that people who do not qualify for drug coverage are willing to pay out of pocket. It should not have taken recent experiences with Wegovy and Mounjaro to illustrate the effect consumers paying cash have on drug prices. One must look no further than over the counter (OTC) drugs.
Tuesday Links – 17 February 2026
- Approximately 70 percent of hazardous waste sites on EPA’s National Priorities List are located within one mile of federally assisted housing.
- Study: on the order of 1,000–1,500 additional U.S. deaths per year in the late 2010s can be attributed to Colombia’s cocaine boom.
- “The amount of blood that passes through a heart each year could fill up a swimming pool.” (NYT)
- “A Black Mississippi child is two and a half times as likely to be proficient in reading by fourth grade as a Black California child.” (NYT)
- 67% of lonely adults prefer digital friends over humans.