Tracy Pike was a 45-year-old father of three when he was diagnosed with Stage-4 stomach cancer. Chemotherapy reduced the size of his tumor, but his doctor recommended an aggressive treatment, combining surgery and intensive chemotherapy at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. His health insurer later denied the treatment…
Category: Single-Payer/Medicare-for-All
Sunday Links
- Biden piles on last minute regulations.
- There is wide variation in low value care (e.g., PSA testing for men ages 75+) among the states.
- Medicare Advantage is disproportionately popular among Black, Hispanic, Asian and low-income enrollees.
- Homelessness reaches the highest level on record.
- Health insurer denial: a bionic arm for a little girl without a biological arm is medically unnecessary and is for cosmetic use only.
Are Pharmacy Closures a Tragedy of the Commons?
When I was a new student in political economy we learned about the tragedy of the commons. The example often used is communal pastureland that herdsmen use to feed their livestock. If pasture is overgrazed the grass dies, but if short grass stems are left to regrow someone else may let their sheep overgraze and the same result occurs.
Friday Links
- How Medicare Advantage works: “The plans look for unhealthy people who likely have been poorly served by the fee-for-service system. These people both have big payment multipliers attached to them and offer lots of opportunity for improving care and lowering costs.”
- How to reform the NIH.
- Covid lockdowns had almost no affect on the top students, but was devastating for those at the bottom.
- Cato’s suggestions for DOGE.
- The money donated to restore Notre Dame could instead have saved 47,500 lives from death by malaria – and maybe twice that number.