Comedian and political commentator, John Oliver, dedicated a 30-minute episode of his television show to our dysfunctional system of organ donation. There were 42,887 organ transplants in the United States last year. However, the number of people waiting for a donor organ, at 103,984 is more than double the number of transplants. It is estimated that 17 people die each day while waiting for a donor organ. The total number of Americans who die each year of any causes is nearly 3.4 million, but less than 2% of deaths occur under conditions optimal for organ donation.
Category: Consumer-Driven Health Care
Why Are Nonprofit Hospitals Focused More on Dollars Than Patients?
Nonprofit hospitals … are supposed to serve the public good in exchange for being exempt from federal, state and local taxes — exemptions that added up to $28 billion in 2020.
[Yet] detailed media reports show them hounding poor patients for money, cutting nurse staffing too aggressively and giving preferential treatment to the rich over the poor….
Tuesday Links
- British Medicaid Journal: “The current body of scientific data does not support masking children for protection against COVID-19.”
- How the newspapers are getting life expectancy projections wrong.
- Cigna Removes Prior Authorization for 25% of Medical Services.
- Merrill Matthews explains why seniors are over-paying for drugs.
- Tiny robots made from human cells heal damaged tissue. HT: Tyler
Monday Links
- James Pethokoukis: the latest numbers confirm that inequality has been exaggerated.
- Study: illegal immigration causes voters to prefer smaller government; and less money for education (with social benefits ) and more law-and-order spending (with private benefits).
- House Republican leader Mike Johnson’s views on how to reform health care.
- Medicare ACOs did not improve mental health outcomes.
- Universal health care in Canada: the health service refuses treatment for cancer and refuses to reimburse the patient for the cost of treatment in the U.S.
- Criticisms of pot legalization do not hold up.