The decade that began with Covid is the decade of telemedicine, and we’re not even halfway through the 2020s. One outcome of Covid is that more and more people became comfortable talking to a doctor on the phone. Also, more health plans and Medicare began to accept telemedicine as a normal way to consulting with physicians. Prior to Covid, Medicare did not reimburse telemedicine in most cases. Beginning March 6, 2020 the Trump administration announced telehealth services would be available to seniors across the country.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Monday Links
- “Dopamine is probably the most famous neurotransmitter in the brain…. It has a long history, and a lot of baggage.”
- Could the government’s price negotiations actually make drug prices higher?
- Social Security’s Financial Reality Is Worse Than Reported: “Despite nearly 20 years of declining and low actual fertility rates, currently sitting at 1.62 births per woman, the Trustees have just this year lowered somewhat the ultimate fertility rate from 2.0 to 1.9 children per woman…”
- How we pay for health care: Total federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and individual market subsidies alone amount to $1.67 trillion per year…. In addition, income tax exemptions for employment-based insurance reduce federal revenues by over $300 billion per year.
- Controlling the cost of insulin: the market works better than government.
Saturday Links
- How much is Medicare spending on the new weight loss drugs?
- Data suggests only about 30 percent of the reported COVID-19 deaths were “from COVID-19” as the underlying cause.
- Drug induced deaths among Blacks is soaring. Is an open border the reason?
- More evidence that Fauci lied and covered up Wuhan Lab funding.
- Why Biden is wrong about wanting to repeal TCJA (the Trump tax cuts).
- Far more people drink alcohol than consume marijuana; but more people consume marijuana than consume alcohol on a daily basis. (WaPo)
- Ambroxol is a miracle drug for coughs and colds. It has been in wide use since 1979, and is available nearly everywhere in the world as a generic. But not in the U.S.
- Electrical impulses are helping paralyzed patients move.
Friday Links
- Are drug companies abusing the patent system by filing multiple additional patents on a drug to keep generics out of the market?
- The National Institutes of Health is proposing price controls for drugs.
- Nearly 70% of Gaza aid from a US-built pier was stolen.
- Should Ozempic be sold over-the-counter?
- Top Fauci adviser allegedly destroyed evidence about origins of COVID-19 pandemic.
- Physicians spend more than four hours a day on average managing and updating EHR. Why can’t AI do the job?
- Could the Chinese system have an advantage over liberal democracies?