According to the New York Times the US Food and Drug Administration has received an application by a drug company to switch a prescription birth control pill to over-the-counter status. A Paris-based company, HRA Pharma asked the FDA to make its pill legal to sell without a prescription. That move is controversial, not just because of the recent Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade. Another pill manufacturer, Cadence Health, is also preparing to submit an application to switch its pill to OTC as well.
Category: Public Insurance
What Difference Does Health Care Make?
Robin Hanson’s classic article comes to this conclusion:
Perhaps the most striking puzzle in health policy is the apparent lack of an aggregate empirical relation between medical care and health. Observed variations in medical care typically have an insignificant effect on average population health, even when looking at large data sets, sets larger than those which convinced most researchers of the reality of many other influences on health.
Thursday Links
- Shared Uber rides are back. But is anyone using them?
- Medical debt actually fell during the pandemic – across all income groups.
- Medicare Advantage plans cost $1,704 less per member, per year, relative to traditional Medicare.
- Paying employees $1,000 each to get vaccinated induces 98% compliance.
- Did Covid cause an increase in prejudice against East Asians and Hispanics?
Health Plans Now Required to Post Prices. Will it Help?
An article in Kaiser Health News explained that health plans are now required to post the prices they have negotiated with all in-network health care providers. Failing to do so will result in substantial fines. The new rule is the result of an executive order then President Trump issued back in 2019.
Price transparency is the holy grail in health policy. There is not one price, but many prices depending on who the payer is. There is the list price that nobody pays unless uninsured and caught off-guard. There’s the cash price paid after receiving care. It is often same as the list price. Then there is the (lower) negotiated cash price if uninsured and paid in advance of receiving care. Then there are the prices Medicare pays and Medicaid pays. Health insurers may all have different prices for the same procedures. Indeed, prices vary tremendously across facilities. A knee replacement may be $30,000 at one hospital and $130,000 at another.