- Misinformation Update: One of the strangest aspects of the Covid pandemic was the early insistence by the WHO and the CDC that COVID was not airborne.
- Good news: since before the pandemic, Americans’ wealth is way up, and inequality is down.
- A positive view of doctor assisted suicide. (NYT)
- 55 percent of E.R. doctors say they have been physically assaulted, almost all by patients.
- New test says it can find cancer for $949. Why do some doctors think that is not a good idea? (WSJ)
Category: Health Reform
OTC Hearing Aids Approved One Year Ago, No Thanks to the FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally got something right when it finalized rules allowing over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. Only kidding. The FDA can’t take credit for OTC hearing aids. It took the FDA five years after Congress passed legislation in 2017 forcing the FDA to create a category of OTC hearing aids.
Monday Links
- Who delays care because of cost? Only 29% with employer coverage; 37% with Obamacare; 39% with Medicaid and 42% with Medicare.
- Given an average waiting time of 2½ hours before being discharged, how can there be too many emergency care physicians?
- The “surprise billing” solution isn’t working: Only 4% of the roughly 90,000 payment disputes initiated between April and September have been resolved.
- A CMS rule change will lead to $700 million less savings than the CBO estimated when evaluating the act that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Saturday Links
- Eating two extra fries, chips, gummy bears or a single teaspoon of ice cream on a given day cancels out the calorie effect of reduced consumption due to sugar sweetened beverage taxes.
- Whole Foods founder launches “cash only” health company.
- Explaining the economic development gap: While the printing press spread rapidly in Western Europe after its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450, the Ottomans prohibited its use for almost 250 years.
- In 2019, the federal government spent $5,595 per child on programs benefiting children compared to $29,189 on the average senior.