Private equity investors have been buying up thousands of health care businesses across the country. This includes everything from dermatology practices, to gastroenterology, to air ambulance services. If you seek care at an emergency room, there is a good chance that you will be treated by a physician employed by a staffing firm backed by private equity. Physicians…
Category: Public Insurance
Wednesday Links
- Man harassed by collection agencies over an unpaid $2.57 hospital bill.
- Socialized medicine in Oregon: Measure 111 amends the state constitution to establish “the obligation of the state to ensure that every resident of Oregon has access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care as a fundamental right.” (WSJ)
- How colleges deceive students about the real cost of their enrollment.
- Paul Ryan’s plan to save America’s finances. Social Security reform is bold. Health care reforms are Meh.
Does Grandma Need a roommate? (Alternatives to Long Term Care)
Nearly 70% of seniors will need long-term care at some point in their lives. There are nearly 66,000 long-term care (LTC) facilities in the United States, with a total of about 1 million licensed beds. That will not be nearly enough as the Baby Boomer generation approaches the period in their lives of declining health. The average LTC resident is a woman, accounting for two-thirds of residents. Women stay an average of 3.7 years, compared to men who stay 2.2 years, on average. The reason women outnumber men two-to-one and spend more time in nursing homes is due to women outliving their husbands.
Employers Fight Back Against High-Cost Drugs
I’ve said it a million times: The U.S. health care system is largely predicated on gouging employee health plans. Medicare and Medicaid cover the overhead while the real money is from privately insured patients who are charged several times the fees that Medicare pays for the same service.