- As enrollment declines (because of unwinding form Covid levels) the fall in prescriptions paid for by Medicaid or CHIP were mostly offset by an increase in commercial-paid prescriptions.
- Welfare spending has no effect on the poverty rate.
- Essay: bad government policies are the reason for almost all of our health care system failures. (Statnews)
- Social Security crisis in pictures.
- Krugman doubles down on an old and controversial claim: sweatshops in less developed countries are better than the alternative.
Category: News and Events
What is Your Doctor Not Telling You? It Depends!
Doctors sometimes get caught up in their own knowledge and often do not realize what patients do not know. Doctors may be short on time to discuss treatment side effects. They may believe they know best and do not want to muddy the water with unnecessary discussions. Indeed, one attorney I spoke with told me about the time his wife was discussing a surgery for his son to correct a sports injury. The surgeon became exasperated and said he would withdraw from the surgery if she did not stop asking questions.
Wednesday Links
- Study: Women’s brains age more slowly than men’s.
- GLP-1 drugs work against conditions like Alzheimer’s, osteoarthritis, and certain cancers. Are they anti-aging drugs as well?
- To be cost effective, Nordisk’s Wegovy would need to be cut by over 80 percent and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound would need to fall by nearly a third.
- Is America ignoring the best treatment for opioid addiction?
- Medicaid physician fees are approximately 71 percent of Medicare physician fees in 2024, including 69 percent for office visits, 68 percent for hospital and emergency department visits, 87 percent for obstetric care, and 79 percent for other services under our updated approach.
Fast Company: Could a Mortgage Pay for Million-Dollar Gene Therapies?
In recent years drug makers have developed costly gene therapies priced at more than $1 million. Sometimes these are taken once in a lifetime. Other times they must be repeated periodically. Sometimes they work well, other times not so much.