- Retirees are getting a lot more in the benefits from Social Security and Medicare than they paid in taxes. In the future the difference will get progressively worse.
- Seniors have the most wealth and the least deprivation of any population group.
- California has the highest hospital costs per patient per day in the country.
- “Mean grade inflation reduces future test scores, reduces the likelihood of graduating from high school, reduces college enrollment, and ultimately reduces earnings.”
- Study: people with irregular sleep patterns are 50% more likely to develop dementia.
Category: Medicare
Thursday Links
- Why is Biden’s pension twice the size of Obama’s?
- Poland is an economic recovery model for Venezuela.
- Venezuela’s stock market is now up +73% since President Maduro was captured.
- Why we can’t grow our way out of the Medicare-driven debt crisis.
- The only people who should take an aspirin a day are people with a history of cardiovascular disease. (NYT)
Was 1955 the Golden Age of Health Care Finance?
The 1950s was a simpler time in medicine. Mostly absent was the bureaucracy and overhead required nowadays when billing multiple insurance companies and government programs. Doctors mostly had one price, with perhaps a small discount for BlueCross. Most Americans paid their physician visits directly. This was about the time when Americans were beginning to acquire health coverage through work. Congress intentionally created an incentive for employers to offer coverage when it exempted employee health insurance from taxes. Health insurance was relatively cheap in 1955 because technology was primitive compared to now, and medical inflation was not yet a thing.
Lots of Fraud
A lot of ink is being (justifiably) spilled over the Minnesota welfare fraud, in which Somali communities defrauded the Medicaid system out of at least $250 million, and as much as $18 billion. But this is only the biggest and most audacious case of government fraud that has cropped up in recent years.
Source: Noah Smith