- CBO: the US is on track to add $19 Trillion in new debt over the next ten years.
- The US produces only 14% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients needed for generic drugs. India, China, and Italy are the top producers
- Site neutral payments could save Medicare $150 billion over ten years. (And stop encouraging hospitals to buy up doctor practices.)
- Are physician-owned hospitals the answer to hospital concentration?
- John Cleese explains extremism.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Fewer Doctors Staff Hospital ERs (Saves Money, Boosts Profits)
I only recall going to the emergency room once in my life. It was afterhours and I fell and cut my knee on a floor HVAC grate putting, parallel cuts on my knee cap. I was 12 or 13 at the time and had to have between 20 and 30 stitches. The cost to have my knee sewed up afterhours was around $150 as I recall. When adjusted for inflation that’s about $800. Go figure. If I had the same injury today the ER cost would be just short of $1 million assuming it was in-network. Of course, ER providers are never in-network thanks to private equity buying up emergency medical practices and investing in ER staffing firms.
States with the Most Restrictive Covid Measures Appear to Have Made Things Worse
- States with severe government interventions did not significantly improve health outcomes compared to states with more restrained approaches.
- This may be partly because government interventions appear to have increased excess mortality from non-COVID health conditions.
- Severe government interventions were strongly correlated with worse economic (increased unemployment and decreased GDP) and educational (fewer days of in-person schooling) outcomes.
- The economic and education damage was most severe for lower-income families and children.
Saturday Links
- Study finds health benefits (less asthma) from EV cars. Of course, that overlooks the death and maiming of children in cobalt mines in the Congo.
- Should prisoners be able to donate their organs in return for lighter sentences?
- Cystic Fibrosis drug costs $311,00 a year. But it’s “stunningly effective.”
- How deadly were Covid Lockdowns? “For Americans under 45, there were more excess deaths without the virus in 2020-2021 than with it.”
- Why isn’t it easy for nurses to practice across state lines? As a college professor, I never had any difficulty moving from state to state.