- Hospital patients do better if they brush their teeth.
- Florida’s plan to import drugs from Canada is limited to state employees. It does not apply to the uninsured or to those with private coverage.
- Google cofounder Larry Page once accused Tesla CEO Elon Musk of being a “specieist,” who preferred humans over future digital life forms.
- More on whether AI will take over and kill all the humans.
- More evidence that bureaucracy is no substitute for real markets: “There was no evidence of a differential change in thirty-day mortality among all Medicare beneficiaries with targeted conditions at high-proportion Black hospitals versus other hospitals seven years after the implementation of the [Value Based Purchasing] Program.”
Category: Medicare
The Corporate Practice of Medicine and a Physician Cartel is a Bad Combination for Patients
Physician licensure has created a cartel. There I said it and I said it out loud. The right to practice medicine has high barriers to entry, both in terms of high standards and high costs. It takes 7-to-11 years beyond college to train a new physician, but it really begins long before medical school.
Does Medicare Underpay Physicians? Yes, No and Sometimes
There is a shortage of physicians in the United States. There is especially a shortage of primary care physicians willing to treat Medicare enrollees. People nearing the age of Medicare eligibility are often advised to begin searching for a primary care physician who accepts Medicare a year ahead of time.
Data published in 2020 by the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that the U.S. could see a shortage of 54,100 to 139,000 physicians by 2033. That shortfall is expected to span both primary- and specialty-care fields.
The Advantages (and Disadvantages) of Medicare Advantage
Traditional Medicare has advantages and disadvantages. Traditional Medicare involves Part A (hospitalization) Part B (doctors and clinics), Part D (drugs). Parts B and D require additional premiums. Furthermore, traditional Medicare has unlimited cost sharing, that runs 20% of the total cost. Most enrollees in traditional Medicare opt to buy a separate supplemental insurance policy to cover their cost sharing.