Since before Covid hospitals have been complaining about low profit margins and low cash reserves. This is especially true of rural hospitals that face multiple threats from: 1) more uninsured 2) more publicly insured patients and 3) smaller markets, with less economies of scale.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Is Dental Coverage a Bad Deal? Probably… and That’s a Good Thing
It has been 15 years since I had dental insurance through work. At the time my dental coverage cost $34 a month and had a $250 deductible. It provided one free teeth cleaning per year with routine dental care paid at 85%. Oral surgery, crowns and root canal procedures were covered at 50%. The maximum benefit was $2,500 a year as I recall. My dentist wouldn’t even take it. The next year I dropped coverage because it wasn’t worth the $408 annual cost.
Monday Links
- Insurers have made out like bandits under Obamacare.
- Paragon study: The cost to the taxpayers of Obamacare is $36,798 per additional private insurance enrollee.
- The leader of Hamas is headquartered in Qatar – the same country that hosted the World Cup.
- Tyler Cowen (channeling the Economist) on why Argentina may elect a libertarian president.
- Who is better at keeping food safe? Public health agencies? Or the restaurants themselves?
- Reducing hospital costs without hurting patients.
Saturday Links
- Arthur Laffer: requiring health care providers to post prices for their medical services could save more than $500 billion a year.
- A disappointing discovery: Jim Jordan was willing to Jordan increase the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions – benefiting wealthy taxpayers in blue states – in order to get votes for the speakership.
- Study: repealing Certificate of Need laws leads to more hospitals in urban and rural areas.
- $233 million: what blue states receive that they wouldn’t receive if federal grants reflected these state’s population losses.