- Amazon is providing prices and wait times for primary care.
- The CDC officials “used inaccurate information and misrepresented medical research” to promote mask wearing.
- CDC report: 1 in 5 women receiving maternity care were mistreated and almost 1 in 3 experienced discrimination because of age, weight, income, etc.
- Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok reflect on their 20-year-old blog.
- Nearly 160 Wall Street firms have moved their headquarters out of New York, taking nearly $1 trillion in assets under management with them. (Bloomberg)
Category: Health Economics & Costs
How Medicare Advantage Saves Taxpayers Money
Here is one example:
The Medicare Advantage plans know that 90 percent of the amputations are caused by foot ulcers and that you can reduce foot ulcers by over 40 percent with clean socks and dry feet. Medicare Advantage plans have staff working on dry feet and clean socks, [while] the fee-for-service providers who make more than $100,000 for each amputation in their fees actually had an increase in cases during covid because it’s so profitable.
The [MA] special-needs plans had almost no amputations.
Universal Coverage Will Not Cure Health Inequity
The United States spends about twice as much per capita on health care as other high-income countries. Yet our health outcomes are not as good, on average. It’s not that all Americans are in poor health, it’s that some Americans are in poor health and pulling down the average. As I’ve said before, health is correlated with wealth and education. Wealthier is healthier.
Wednesday Links
- Why patients don’t get enough pain medicine: doctor indifference and drug thieves.
- The annual retail value of goods Americans buy and then return approaches a trillion dollars. HT: Tyler
- Main drug killer of 35 to 44-year-old adults by far is synthetic opioids.
- Should we care about “forever chemicals” that lurk in so much of what we eat, drink and use? Studies show they are bad for rats. (NYT)
- Man believes pediatric doctor reported him to Child Protective Services in retaliation over a bad Google review.
- Richard Hanania with a commonsense review of the risks and benefits of the Covid vaccine.