Hospitals are the worst place to receive care if there are any other choices. Hospital prices are far higher than the same services available elsewhere. I often tell the story of my wife unknowingly checking on getting a CT scan at a hospital outpatient facility. She discovered that her share of the cost was going to be $2,700. That wasn’t the price; that was just her share of the cost. The price was higher. I quickly found a free-standing radiology clinic willing to do the same procedure for $403. Why was it lower? It wasn’t that one CT scanner was better than the other. It was that one was at the hospital where prices are always higher.
Category: Direct Primary Care
More States Pass Medical Conscience Bills
A new law in Montana, dubbed Medical Conscience Objection Laws, will provide sweeping protections for medical professionals who do not want to participate in or provide some types of medical care due to conscience.
Are Asylums the Answer for Mentally Ill Homeless?
The homeless population is reaching epic proportions in high-cost cities and is glowing in places where homelessness was never as prevalent. Although the reasons are many, the homeless are poor, often have uncontrolled substance abuse disorders or suffer from mental illness. Often the homeless have all the above. High rents exacerbate the above problems.
On an average night, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, close to 600,000 people in the country will be homeless—a figure seen by many as an undercount. More than 40% will be “unsheltered,” or “living in places not suitable for human habitation,” and about 20% will be dealing with severe mental illness.
Friday Links
- Sending money to North Korea is very difficult. Sending DNA sequences for hazardous viruses is easy.
- Rationing by waiting.
- Ivy League admissions: Being in a family in the top 1 percent increases your chance of admission by 34 percent. Being in the top 0.1 percent doubles it.
- Why aren’t there more health care centers of excellence?
- Workers with intellectual disabilities can legally be paid less than the federal minimum wage – in some cases much less.