- Poll: Americans overwhelming support polygenic embryo selection for serious disease, but by 45% to 35% oppose selecting for IQ.
- How the father’s diet affects the health of the descendants.
- Why do the richest states get the most Medicaid money?
- Why are so many scientists around the world engaged in “gain of function” research? Because they can get money to do it.
- Why progressives should support free trade.
- Cato study: Occupational licensing disproportionately burdens minority workers.
Category: Medicare
House Oversight Committee: PBMs Increase the Drug Costs
I wrote about pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) extensively in the past. PBMs are the middlemen who manage pharmacy benefits for employee health plans, Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies. The concept is simple: PBMs leverage buying power to extract discounts from drug makers. These discounts are (in theory) passed on to consumers and health plan clients. PBMs also create drug formularies and adjudicate drug claims.
Medicare and Wegovy
A report by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) estimates that treating even half of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with obesity would cost $166 billion per year, nearly the cost of total spending on all prescription drugs in 2022 ($175 billion).
Source: STAT (gated)
Tuesday Links
- Kamal Harris’ health plan: Medicare for all, with private insurers participating – like Medicare Advantage.
- Surprise: low voter turnout benefits Democrats, not Republicans. “The likeliest voters are Democrats, while the ones who are less likely to vote are Republicans.”
- Message to the White House: inflation isn’t caused by greed. (WaPo)
- Estimating the cost of our bureaucratic health insurance payment system.
- What happens when you give people $1,000 a month with no string attached? They spend it. They also work less. “For every $1 of free money received, participants’ earnings dropped by at least 12 cents and total household income fell by at least 21 cents.”