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Category: Health Reform

Health Plans Now Required to Post Prices. Will it Help?

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Devon Herrick

An article in Kaiser Health News explained that health plans are now required to post the prices they have negotiated with all in-network health care providers. Failing to do so will result in substantial fines. The new rule is the result of an executive order then President Trump issued back in 2019.

Price transparency is the holy grail in health policy. There is not one price, but many prices depending on who the payer is. There is the list price that nobody pays unless uninsured and caught off-guard. There’s the cash price paid after receiving care. It is often same as the list price. Then there is the (lower) negotiated cash price if uninsured and paid in advance of receiving care. Then there are the prices Medicare pays and Medicaid pays. Health insurers may all have different prices for the same procedures. Indeed, prices vary tremendously across facilities. A knee replacement may be $30,000 at one hospital and $130,000 at another.

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Pfizer’s View of its Own Vaccine

Posted on June 30, 2022June 30, 2022 by John C. Goodman

Turns out, it is very positive. But in a review of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla’s book, Moonshot, Robert Kaplan asks:

How transparent has Pfizer been? In the book’s more than 200 pages, one topic is not explored in any real depth—side effects. Although the vaccine is generally regarded as safe, side effects do appear to be more common—and perhaps more severe—than for other widely used vaccines. In the 2020 clinical trial that provided the basis for FDA emergency-use authorization, more than 83% of 18- to 55-year-old participants (in comparison with 14% of those injected with a placebo) reported arm pain after their first shot, and approximately a third had a fever in reaction to their second (in contrast to less than 1% for a placebo).

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FDA Looking to Modify Covid Vaccine for Omicron (Only a Year too Late)

Posted on June 29, 2022June 30, 2022 by Devon Herrick

On Tuesday, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration met to discuss the Covid-19 vaccine booster. The advisory committee was tasked to decide whether to recommend updating the Covid vaccine to contain an Omicron component for booster vaccines in the United States. Public health officials are concerned that the arrival of colder weather than keeps people indoors along with emerging variants could result in a sharp rise in Covid cases.

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Book: Regulations Hinder Legal Cannabis Suppliers (Just Like Other Industries)

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Devon Herrick

A new book coauthored by two economists explains the economics of legalized marijuana are not very lucrative. The regulations for selling legal weed are so onerous that illegal marijuana sells for half the price of the highly regulated legal product when competing for the same customers. In fact, the regulatory maze is such that in most states where cannabis is legal aspiring distributors hire consultants to assist with the application process. Indeed, the people in the cannabis industry making the most (legal) money are the consultants and lobbyists.

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For many years, our health care blog was the only free enterprise health policy blog on the internet. Then, when the NCPA closed its doors, the health blog stopped as well.

During this five-year hiatus no one else has come forward to claim the space. So, my colleagues and I have decided to restart the blog in connection with the Goodman Institute. We invite you and others to use this forum to share your views.

John C. Goodman,

Visit www.goodmaninstitute.org

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