- Benefits Cliffs: In Illinois, a family earning an additional $1,000, at a certain threshold, loses more than $25,000 in net resources…. [A] hypothetical single parent in the District of Columbia gains nothing financially as earnings rise from $11,000 to $65,000.
- 250 California state employees were paid more than $600,000 last year.
- Where you can see puffins.
- “Black Americans continue to experience higher colorectal cancer mortality rates, and rural and medically underserved communities face persistent barriers to timely diagnosis and treatment.”
Category: Health Reform
Does Your Doctor Need a Boss?
Over the years my doctors have been good at helping me save money when they realize I’m price sensitive. Physicians who work for large organizations have less leeway when their practice of medicine is controlled by a hospital system and they are graded on referrals. Nowadays about 75% of physicians are employees rather than independent practice.
Saturday Links – 29 August 2026
- Why federal budget deficits cause trade deficits.
- Problems with medical guidelines.
- California’s war on tires: EV’s wear out tires 20% to 30% faster than other cars.
- Why electronic medical records increased health care spending:
Research found it increased diagnostic testing by 40 to 70 percent at some institutions, as clinicians acted on information that paper records had obscured.
Earlier cancer detection expands the population receiving treatment, not just those who would have presented later with more advanced disease. Better diagnostics surface conditions that would have gone unmanaged. New therapies enter at premium prices that reflect development costs and market power, not clinical value alone. The treated population grows, utilization rises, and the system spends more on care that is genuinely better but more expensive. The value is real. So is the inflation. They are not in tension; they are the same phenomenon.
Friday Links – 28 August 2026
- Life is more affordable in red states.
- In defense of data centers.
- Best city for health care access: Rochester, Minn.
- 69 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have two or more chronic conditions.
- “Prescription drug prices fell 3.1% over the past year, the sharpest annual decline in more than six decades, according to new data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
- The case for Lloyd Doggett’s anti-Medicare Advantage bill.
- The case against the bill.