Dominique Vervoort and Ge Bai analyzed the percentage change in average charges and compared them to average Medicare Part B (fee-for-service) payments for 51 specialties. Data was drawn from the years 2010 to 2019, with the figures adjusted for inflation. The authors found a positive association between the change in charges and change in Medicare payments (see the figure). This was not unexpected. Charges are often pegged to Medicare in some way. There were two outliers. (This too should come as no surprise). Emergency care and anesthesia charges grew faster and were above the trend line.
Why Americans Spend So Much on Health Care
There are a variety of reasons, both good and bad.
The bottom line: U.S. health care is tailored to an affluent population that suffers from the afflictions of an affluent population. The solution is more individual control.
HT: Chris Pope, Manhattan Institute, writing in City Journal.
Friday Links
New Lambda drug appears to work against Covid.
Alex Tabarrok on what the government did wrong on Covid
David Henderson on Tabarrok’s analysis, Part 1 and Part 2
Over 28 million Medicare beneficiaries used telehealth during the first year of the pandemic. This was more than 2 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries.
Daylight Savings Time is bad for your health
Daylight Savings Time (DST) was first adopted by Germany in 1916 to conserve fuel during World War I. Over the next couple years, it was adopted in Europe and by the United States. More than a century later, scientists have begun to realize that its negative effects on safety and human health outweighs any benefits that it provides. As an aside, I wonder what took scientists 100 years to figure that out.