- Trudeau’s legacy: Canada’s per capita income has fallen to below 70% of what it is in the U.S.
- Do hospital mergers damage local economies and result in an increase in deaths by suicide and drug overdoses? Maybe not.
- Telemedicine under Medicare gets a 3-month extension.
- Each year, 120,000 die from snake bites and about 400,000 lose limbs to amputation.
- Study: Sugary drinks were linked to 2.2 million additional cases of Type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million cases of cardiovascular disease in 2020, with a disproportionate share of those cases concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
- Wastewater, even after treatment to make it drinkable, contains high levels of forever chemicals.
- Evolution of Part D plans over a decade: more prior authorization and step therapy requirements
Category: Single-Payer/Medicare-for-All
Wednesday Links
- Controversial Meta-analysis of 74 studies finds a relationship between fluoride exposure and lower IQ.
- Then downside of fewer diagnostic categories in Medicare Advantage: increased incentives for risk selection and reduced incentives to provide high-quality care to beneficiaries with diagnoses in the excluded groups.
- “Our findings reveal that hospitals (for-profit and nonprofit) have consistently maintained higher profit margins than insurance companies…. our analysis suggests that high hospital prices drive insurance premiums.”
- Does investing in social determinants of health pay off?
- No, moderate drinking will not give you cancer. See also, WSJ
Private Equity Found Yet Another Way to Surprise Medical Bill Patients
A word to the wise: when discussing a preventive colonoscopy with your physician, never mention any symptom involving your colon.
Wednesday Links
- Are foreign trained doctors better than US trained doctors? I doubt it.
- Why we need health insurance companies.
- Other than Medicare Advantage, no health plan wants a sick person.
- Oz and RFK, Jr. clash over weight loss drugs.
- Only 9% of tax filers today itemize deductions, and they are almost all of them are millionaires and billionaires. So why not get rid of them and move to a flat tax?