- Updating the Hippocratic oath.
- Medicare Advantage plans get paid 6% more than traditional Medicare but they are 13% less costly.
- The main reason why traditional Medicare is so wasteful: 70% of enrollees have Medigap insurance, which means the cost of care to the patient is essentially zero.
- Government employees make 40% more than private sector workers. Plus, they have de facto tenure.
- Private health care is the new normal in Britain.
Category: Medicare
ERs are Still Overpriced Despite Fewer Surprise Bills
A few years back a Johns Hopkins University study on emergency room prices found they were outrageous. I mean, who knew that hospital emergency departments overcharge? The study looked at 12,000 billing records for emergency medicine doctors nationwide. Researchers found patients were charged 340 percent more, on average, than what Medicare pays for the same service. Charges ranged from 1 to nearly 13 times what Medicare’s fee schedule.
Thursday Links
- The Covid lockdowns appear to have caused a spike in alcohol related deaths.
- Why don’t we see dynamic pricing in health care?
- Why is Medicaid paying for Housing?
- 11 percent of U.S. 12 graders report using delta-8 (a psychoactive substance derived from hemp that is chemically very similar to delta-9-THC, the molecule in marijuana responsible for causing the high associated with taking cannabis).
- Social Security and Medicare spending are set to nearly double by 2033.
- Harvard’s Dr. Martin Kulldorff got the big things right on COVID, more than perhaps any other academic expert in America. He was censored on Twitter, fired by Harvard and fired by the CDC.
Thursday Links
- Study: diet soft drinks are bad for your heart.
- The “pill penalty”: Medicare will set prices for pills, tablets and capsules 9 years after FDA approval. But biologics get 13 years. Go figure.
- Because of an outdated FDA approval process the family had to take their daughter to Italy to save her life.
- “The reason why Singapore spends so much less on health than other developed countries is its low hospital utilization.” HT: Tyler
- All you want to know (and then some) about fasting.