On the 4th of July millions of Americans will head outdoors. They will hit the beach, hit local lakes or do outdoor activities like hiking, biking, baseball or picnics, cookouts and pool parties with friends. Many will slather on sunblock before heading outdoors for activities in the sun. Many of those will forget to reapply sunscreen…
Category: Health Reform
Health Plans Now Required to Post Prices. Will it Help?
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.
Tuesday Links
- 1 in 5 adults say they have received an unexpected medical bill this year, even though surprise billing has been illegal since January.
- Pregnant woman ticketed for driving alone in an HOV lane claims her fetus was the second passenger.
- Two more studies find that giving people money doesn’t work: “getting the money reminded recipients that they were poor, without doing much to change that long-term condition, which in turn led to worse psychological health and lower happiness among recipients.”
- Arnold Kling on the studies: “There are even worse results than that. It turns out that getting a windfall and ending up back where you started makes you feel worse than you did before getting the windfall.”
- Did the Black Plague have beneficial economic effects? Tyler Cowen reviews James Belich’s The World the Plague Made.
- Circadian medicine: “There’s a skin clock and a liver clock and an immune system clock; there’s a clock for the kidney, heart, lungs, muscles and reproductive system.”
Pfizer’s View of its Own Vaccine
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).