- Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) leads a bipartisan group of House members who want to bring drug production onshore.
- Warren piles on — attacking MA plans. Private insurers have a “long history of exploiting the government out of billions of dollars,” she says.
- Against the “AI pause.”
- Yglesias: The problem with the media is the audience.
- Does Medicaid expansion reduce employment?
Category: Medicare
Sunday Links
- AAF study of the effects of Medicare’s coming drug price negotiations: fewer than 6 million beneficiaries – less than 10% of enrollees – will benefit at all and for those with any saving 69% of will save less than $300.
- Given Trump and Biden executive orders promoting the idea, why is it taking so long to allow states to import drugs from Canada?
- Health Affairs authors: giving insulin to patients for free is cost effective. So why don’t insurers – including Medicare Part D insurers – do that? I explained that months ago.
- How health care was rationed during the pandemic: Mississippi case study.
- Left-of-center Tax Policy Center: people earning less than $400,000 will pay more taxes under the new Biden budget proposal. A lot more taxes!
Medicare is a Battlefield
Kaiser Health News wrote about The Medicare Wars. Regardless of which party is using Medicare as an issue they will likely accuse the other side of a War on Seniors. A better description than “war” would be scaremongering among politicians to frighten senior voters. KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner reports politicians use Medicare as a scaremongering issue because it works.
Thursday Links
- Congressional health program suffers “significant data breach” affecting “hundreds” of lawmakers, staff.
- Bill Frist: the benefit from implementing value-based payment models has been modest, and so far has not resulted in significant savings to payers, providers, or patients. No surprise: they were all designed by the buyers of care – something that happens in no other market.
- “We are now 11 years into the largest epidemic of adolescent mental illness ever recorded.”
- Site neutral payments (independent of hospital, clinic, doctor’s office, etc.) would save Medicare $158 billion over ten years.
- About half of the governmental public health workforce left their jobs between 2017 and 2021.