“Initially, people were always required to get their care inside of the VA. The VA started having really long wait times, or wasn’t providing adequate service, or a number of reasons why people decided they wanted to get outside of the VA.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Why is there a Federal Student Loan Crisis?
The increase in aggregate student debt and the struggles of today’s student loan borrowers can be traced to changes in federal policies intended to broaden access to federal aid and educational opportunities, and which increased enrollment and borrowing in higher-risk circumstances.
Source: NBER study via Tyler Cowen.
New Uses for Telemedicine are Taking America by Storm
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.
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.