How much medical care does society owe Americans that they could not otherwise afford? It’s not a philosophical question, such as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. This question plays out every day.
Category: Drug Prices & Regulations
Thursday Links
- To deal with misleading ads in the Medicare Advantage open enrollment period, CMS has tried every possible remedy except the obvious one: let doctors advise their own patients about the choices.
- Inequality in life expectancy: “the least-educated Americans have seen their death rates surge in a way that more-educated Americans have not.
- A Trump executive order requires giving consumers full pricing information for medications. It looks like the courts are going to force the Biden administration to enforce that rule.
- Covid vaccine mandates are back – in red state Texas!
- Food stamp spending has doubled in the last four years.
- David Friedman wonders if he can escape death.
How Many Pathogens Does it Take to Make You Sick? It Depends!
North America is about to enter cold and flu season. Covid is on the uptick and may spread to millions of people this winter depending on how many people get a booster and how well the boosters work. Every year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has to decide in the winter to spring which four flu strains are most likely to hit the United States next year. Strains circulating in Asia are often the ones that infect Americans, Canadians and Mexicans in the coming Winter. Thus, the flu vaccine is a cocktail of the four flu strains likely during following flu season.
Friday Links
- Kaiser: Insurers deny medical claims more often than you think.
- Enthoven in Health Affairs: likes our new Medicare book. A “must read.”
- Tom Miller: why most health policy is déjà vu.
- Why is mental health declining for young women? (NYT)
- Are Biden’s regulations the reason for a 20% drop in blood tests for transplant patients? (WSJ)
- How can you do a placebo-controlled drug trial if the disease affects only a few dozen people? (WSJ)