July 4th is just around the corner on my calendar, but summer has already arrived in Texas. After a rainy spring, the sun has finally burned off the cloud cover and has begun to fry my grass. Hello big water bills! The grass is not the only thing the sun fries in Texas (and elsewhere). It also fries Americans’ skin.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Monday Links
- Which is the bigger problem: fraud or the price of drugs? In 2022, Medicaid programs made around $80 billion in improper payments, an incredible figure—almost twice Medicaid’s spending on prescription drugs ($44 billion).
- Spending on drugs is a small and declining fraction (from 13% to 11% over the next ten years) of total Medicare spending. So why is it getting all the attention?
- Economic superiority of Medicare Advantage over traditional Medicare.
- How doctors get paid – and what’s wrong with it.
Saturday Links
- Some homework works: A randomized controlled trial of employees in a Chinese tech firm found that two days of work from home and three days in the office reduced quit rates, improved job satisfaction and had no impact on performance, when compared with employees who worked full-time in the office.
- $35 insulin actually started under Trump, but the real credit goes to Eli Lilly.
- Former CDC director admits “no one wanted to release negative information about Covid vaccines.”
- Per pupil school spending has more than quadrupled since 1960, although student test scores have barely budged.
- In 2021, the Biden administration pledged it would build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030. So far, it has built only 7.
- Conflicting polls: Did more people die from the Covid vaccine than from Covid?
The Doctor’s Office is Coming to a Home Near You (Yours)
Every year I buy comprehensive blood testing from Walk-In Lab during their 20% off, end-of-the-year sales event. I select the test, pick the lab (Lab Corp or Quest Diagnostics) and pay online. I take the lab order to Quest Diagnostics located in my local Walmart. Nothing could be easier; I can even shop while I wait for them to call me for my blood draw. Prices are transparent. Lab tests that I paid just under $130 for on sale would possibly cost $500 through the hospital owned clinic that employs my doctor.