- Dr. Marty Makary: The best way to lower drug costs in the United States are to stop taking drugs we don’t need.
- The Longshoreman’s union negotiator makes nearly $900,000 dollars a year and owned a 76-foot yacht, and the modal longshoreman makes north of $150,000 a year. HT: Maxwell Tabarrok.
- After ten years, Bob Graboyes thoughts on health care system are highly relevant today.
- Who has it easier in the USA today? While 68% of Democrats believe men have the advantage, only 32% of Republicans agree.
- What quality ratings look like in the Medicare Advantage program. There are no quality measurements for traditional Medicare.
- What happens when private equity takes over the emergency room. (a negative opinion)
- Why telemedicine needs to cross state lines.
- Stem cell research was used to cure Type One diabetes.
Category: Drug Prices & Regulations
One More Effect of the IRA Bill
Medicare Advantage plans are not included in the Biden Administration’s “demonstration project,” which effectively bribes insurers to not raise their out-of-pocket costs for drug coverage.
Source: Statnews
Friday Links
- In 2023, the U.S. spent $4.8 trillion on healthcare. As much as half of that massive expenditure, $2.4 trillion, paid for activities unrelated to patient care called BARRCOME – bureaucracy, administration, rules, regulations, compliance, oversight, mandates, and enforcement.
- Medicare physician payments declined substantially from 2001 to 2024 — a whopping 29%.
- Currently, physicians are the only Medicare providers who do not receive annual, inflation-based payment updates.
- Head of the International Longshoremen’s Association explains what the strike is all about, along with a video showing how dockworkers can be replaced by automation. (it’s a long way from On the Water Front.
- Cato study: Marijuana doesn’t make you crazy.
- An Elon Musk device is allowing the blind to see.
Thursday Links
- A Fauci aide who taught a coworker how to destroy government records to avoid complying with FOIA requests is taking the Fifth before a congressional committee.
- The real issue in the port workers strike is not wages, it’s automation.
- Why McDonald’s burgers taste better (different?) outside the US.
- The nanny state: number of US counties in which government transfers are more than 25% of personal income.
- Humana tumbles as insurer faces $3 billion hit to revenue over lower Medicare star ratings (Statnews)
- Medicaid is no longer for the poor: Enrollment as a percentage of the U.S. population has more than tripled, rising from around 8% in the late 1980s to nearly 27% by 2022, while the poverty rate remained relatively stable.