- Contrary to the AMA and the CDC, there is no maternal mortality crisis. The authors found that the maternal mortality rate remained essentially flat between 1999 and 2002 (10.2 per 100,000 live births) and 2018 and 2021 (10.4). This would put the U.S. on par with other developed countries.
- Biden to lower the hammer on short-terms health insurance plans any day now.
- There were 17,597 dog bite liability claims filed across the country in 2022, with payouts totaling more than $1 billion.
- Average life expectancy has declined because a lot of young people are dying early (e.g., drug overdoses); among people who make it to old age, life expectancy is longer than ever.
Category: Health Insurance
Is Universal Dental Coverage the Next Obamacare Expansion?
Public health advocates have long considered dental care a neglected area of medicine, with dentistry in a silo of its own. Obamacare was intended to provide universal health coverage and boost access to medical care. However, it did not expand dental coverage beyond what was included in Medicaid expansion. Dental insurance must be purchased separate from health insurance for most people.
Saturday Links
- The U.S. is no longer among the top 20 happiest countries.
- Saving lives with pig kidneys.
- Why is fetal tissue research so controversial?
- Liberating the pharmacists.
- Highest drug price ever: $4.25 million per treatment.
- Site neutrality (same fee regardless of where the procedure is performed) would save Medicare more than $3.7 billion over the next decade, and lower beneficiary co-payments by $40 a visit.
Thursday Links
- Biden Budget: more spending on the elderly: crumbs for the children. (Kids don’t vote.)
- 17,000 families in Illinois alone have lost homes to Medicaid recovery since 2021. (NYT)
- The ACCESS Act allows low-income families to redirect a portion of their (Obamacare) subsidies into a tax-advantaged health savings account (HSA).
- “The biggest deficits are showing up in the blue states that received massive [Covid] handouts … and are now facing the day of reckoning.”
- How much is a patient’s life worth in the UK?