Years ago, I went to see a new doctor and offered to pay at time of service because I had not met my deductible. My doctor told me to wait for him to bill me because he had no idea what I would owe. Nowadays medical providers are taking no chances. The Wall Street Journal reports that doctors and hospitals increasingly ask for payment upfront.
Category: Health Insurance
Tuesday Links – 8 September 2026
- Food Stamp spending is on a path to exceed the Biden baseline.
- HHS, Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of “Gender Medicine”
- Capital punishment for Bruce the dog. A California court ordered euthanization for an Anatolian Shephard accused of biting three people, including a child, and knocking over a man pushing a wheel chair. Supreme Court appeal was too late. (NYT)
- Street medicine: More than 150 programs across the country provide medical care to people sleeping outside — on sidewalks, in encampments, under overpasses. (NYT)
- Four million children in the United States are caring for an adult family member who is sick or disabled or old.
The High Cost of Cancer Drugs
Cancer drugs are expensive. When Congress mandated unlimited benefits through the ACA, it virtually guaranteed that the sky would be the limit on pricing. Cancer survival has increased tremendously in the past few decades, but much of that increase is due to fewer Americans smoking, since lung cancer is both deadly and difficult to treat. While cancer drugs are getting better, the rise in cost has far outpaced the improvement.
Thursday Links – 3 September 2026
- Mark Cuban: hospitals don’t know their costs.
- RFK, Jr: Health care providers, insurers and health technology companies paid the AMA more than $300 million last year for permission to use its Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes. (InsideHealthPolicy)
- Why NYC has a housing problem: Between 1998 and 2026, there were 3,364 new laws affecting housing in the city.
- Why we need skilled immigrants.