I wrote about pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) extensively in the past. PBMs are the middlemen who manage pharmacy benefits for employee health plans, Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies. The concept is simple: PBMs leverage buying power to extract discounts from drug makers. These discounts are (in theory) passed on to consumers and health plan clients. PBMs also create drug formularies and adjudicate drug claims.
Category: Single-Payer/Medicare-for-All
Are Medicaid Work Requirements a Success or a Failure? It Depends
Many Red States have proposed to add work requirements to Medicaid eligibility. The Georgia Medicaid program is currently the only state in the nation to have a work requirement as a condition of eligibility, but other states have expressed an interest.
Monday Links
- The U.S. military now estimates that the cartels directly control around 30-35% of Mexican territory. Over eighty politicians or candidates for political office were killed in Mexico during the country’s 2021 midterm elections. (HT: Tyler)
- Does living around people with a college degree lengthen your life expectancy? Apparently.
- Reasons to doubt the USDA report on the prevalence of food insecurity.
- Why the Biden/Harris claim that they have legalized marijuana is mostly false.
- What explains the slowdown in Medicare spending? A major reason is pharmaceuticals.
Wednesday Links
- Cancer phobia: In 2017, 21.3 million American women had cancer screening tests even though they were outside the age ranges for recommended screening. 10.1 million men outside the recommended age ranges had a PSA test.
- People with Obamacare health insurance are being switched to other plans without their knowledge or consent by rogue agents.
- Why are expensive cancer treatments excluded from Medicare’s price negotiations?
- Henry Miller: “The vaccines saved 2.9 million lives, prevented 12.5 million hospitalizations, and saved $500 billion in hospitalization.”