- What health policy proposals are in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025? (1) Medicare Advantage will be the default option for Medicare enrollees, (2) site neutral payments by Medicare, (3) replace the physician fee-for-service system with value-based payments and (4) physician owned hospitals.
- Is the Republican Party becoming more anti-trade and anti-legal immigration?
- “I estimate that the combined losses to tenants and housing providers of a typical [Joe Biden type] rent control policy would be over $50 billion per year.”
- Biden’s rent control proposal changed from a cap of 5% annual rent increases to a cap of $55 – presumably because he had trouble reading the prompter.
- More horror stories from the British National Health Service.
Category: Health Insurance
Thursday Links
- Since 2001, Medicare physician payments have fallen 30 percent behind the rate of inflation.
- The rising cost of Obamacare: CBO: subsidies will cost $1.3 trillion over the next decade and Medicaid expansion will cost another $1.4 trillion. (WSJ)
- Claim: Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are partly responsible for drug shortages. (Speculative)
- Medicare Part D enrollees: expect more restrictive formularies and utilization controls. Plans “may steer Medicare beneficiaries to use drugs that have to be administered by a doctor rather than pills that can be picked up at a pharmacy.”
- Three weaknesses with hospital “all payer” systems: (1) self-insured employers (most large companies) are exempt, (2) Medicare Advantage plans are exempt and (3) hospital participation must be voluntary.
Wednesday Links
- Against the American Cancer Society.
- What to know about LDL cholesterol.
- A carpenter ant can amputate the injured leg of a fellow ant. (NYT)
- At the end of your life a family member (medical surrogate) is more likely to override your preference for life extending care if you have dementia.
- The Biden-Harris administration has added regulatory costs of more than $40,000 per household. Among the items that are more expensive: microwave ovens, conventional ovens, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, dishwashers, clothes dryers, water heaters, air conditioners, ceiling fans, furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, lamps and light bulbs.
Are Medicaid Work Requirements a Success or a Failure? It Depends
Many Red States have proposed to add work requirements to Medicaid eligibility. The Georgia Medicaid program is currently the only state in the nation to have a work requirement as a condition of eligibility, but other states have expressed an interest.