- A bipartisan congressional tax deal sounds very good to us.
- “Having a best friend with a reported serious injury in the previous year increases the probability of own opioid misuse by around 7 percentage points in a population where 17 percent ever misuses opioids.”
- Between 2000 and 2020, Black individuals consistently experienced higher cancer mortality than White individuals for all cancers except female lung and bronchus.
- “Over time, most Latin American countries can expect shrinking populations,” causing lots of economic problems. Recommended
- Why Florida may not save $180 million by importing drugs from Canada. (Bloomberg)
Category: Public Insurance
The Cost of Obamacare
According to the KFF subsidy calculator, a 60-year-old with a $100,000 income, has to pay a premium (net of subsidy) of $708 a month or $8496 a year. The annual out-of-pocket exposure is $9,450.
If the individual has costly health problems, he will have to pay $17,946 before the health plan begins paying all other expenses. If his illness is chronic, he must bear this expense every year.
If the individual goes out-of-network, because the plan doesn’t cover the specialty care he needs, the plan pays nothing.
Are Direct-to-Consumer Body Scans Good or Bad? Doctors Say Bad.
Several years ago I got a full-body CT scan. It found a spot on my liver that was “statistically unlikely” to be anything serious. It also found something else that was just a typical anomaly and told me my coronary arteries were in great shape for my age. I don’t recall what else it found but it wasn’t something that changed my life. A few years earlier a relative got a full-body CT scan because of pain in his side that his doctor wasn’t taking seriously. It found kidney stones. Someone else I know got his & her body scans. What all these scans have in common was they were all direct-to-consumer, with no input from their doctors. They were also all paid for in cash.
Is Your Doctor’s Advice Influenced by Money? Probably More Than You Realize
The Department of Health and Human Services, and many other federal agencies, love having experts to advise them. But are the experts always unbiased? Some are, while others are probably not. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is made up of 16 primary care experts, all volunteers who make recommendations about cost-effective preventive medical services and screenings….