- If Medicaid paid doctors as much as private insurers pay that would reduce more than half of differences in access to care among adults and would eliminate such disparities entirely among children.
- Thinkers tell Health Affairs how we should reform the health care system: Mark McClellan, Bill Frist, Don Berwick, etc. None advocate liberating the marketplace.
- The long reach of DEI: about a quarter of the American workforce is employed by a business classified as a “government contractor.”
- Why there is so much health care rationing in Canada: the US has almost half again as many doctors per capita.
- Larry Ellison: artificial intelligence (AI) will allow us to detect cancer and help develop a personalized vaccine in 48 hours.
Category: Single-Payer/Medicare-for-All
Thursday Links
- Trump’s seven health care actions on day one.
- An interesting summary of what Trump’s Day One executive orders will mean.
- ACOs also receive risk adjusted payments and they have incentives to up code.
- Mortality rates in Medicare advantage are initially lower than in traditional Medicare but they converge over time.
- Will the world come to an end after the US leaves the WHO?
- The Healthy SNAP Act that would ban spending food stamps on junk food. Here is why the legislation would probably make no difference.
NYT: Seniors Losing Assisted Living Apartments After Paying Huge Up Front Fees
Senior care is expensive. A family member required nursing home care for just over two years and her costs added up to about $275,000 over the course of her stay. She was only able to remain in her own home after her husband died because she had a companion to help with household chores.
FTC Claims PBMs Jacking Up Drugstore Prices
Since I wrote about carving out Medicaid drug benefits versus carving in benefits the industry changed. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) began to consolidate to the point where the top three now control about 85% of the drug market. When three firms dominate an industry to that degree their behavior can go from benevolent (i.e. competing for business) to malevolent, self-dealing behavior.