- Make payments site neutral – same fee, regardless of where the service is performed (hospital, out-patient clinic, doctor’s office, etc.)
- End Medicare’s bad-debt compensation program that reimburses hospitals for 65% of uncollected patient out-of-pocket costs.
- Get serious about tackling fraud.
- Recognize preventive medicine as a money saver rather than a money spender.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
How Joe Biden Wants to Save Medcare
| Trump (actual) | Biden Proposed | |
| Personal income tax top rate | 37% | 44.6% |
| Capital gains tax top rate (including NIIT) | 23.8% | 44.6% |
| Corporate tax | 21% | 28% |
| Tax on Unrealized Capital Gains | 0% | 25% |
| Medicare tax/NIIT | 3.8% | 5% |
| Stock Buyback tax | 0% | 4% |
Source: Committee to Unleash Prosperity
Friday Links
- An argument for mask wearing, even after the Cochrane Review meta-analysis.
- An early (and completely uncritical) history of medical licensing. To be paired with Regulation of Medical Care by moi — for balance.
- Why Daylight Savings Time matters: “The body releases sleep-time and wake-time hormones at a particular time.” Studies have shown that deadly car accidents, workplace injuries, and heart attacks increase following the springtime change.
- Should a face-to-face meeting be required before doctors prescribe a controlled substance for a patient?
- California to end Walgreens contract over abortion pills policy.
- What the Biden plan to “save” Medicare doesn’t do: repeal the Democrats’ IRA bill that takes $246 billion out of Medicare. (CBO p. 72)
Wednesday Links
- “The crackdown on [opioid] pain pills replaced legally manufactured, reliably dosed pharmaceuticals with iffy black-market products of unknown provenance and composition. Meanwhile, prohibition fostered the rise of fentanyl as a heroin booster and substitute.”
- Jeffrey Singer testified with the same message. He was the Democrats’ witness!
- Telemedicine is being widely used in Ukraine.
- Paragon: In 2019, New York (state per capita income: $67,366) received $17,145 in federal Medicaid funding per person in poverty, while Alabama (state per capita income: $43,288) received $6,148.
- CBO’s options for reducing health care spending: establishing caps on federal spending for Medicaid; limiting state taxes on providers; reducing the federal Medicaid match rates; increasing Medicare Part B premiums; reducing Medicare Advantage benchmarks; and reducing the tax subsidies for employment-based insurance, etc. What about a free market for health care?