Category: Interesting Links

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Democrats vote to keep White House tours closed.

Medicare paid $5.1 billion for stays in nursing homes that did not meet quality-of-care requirements.

Harry Reid blocks a vote to prevent airport delays and closures.

Halfway houses don’t work.

Only 5.5% of patients email their doctors.

Mar 27, 2013 | 11 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

In its first three years, President Obama’s healthcare law has imposed more than $30 billion in costs and 111 million hours of paperwork burdens.

Individual insurance premiums are about to go up by one-third.

White House: If Congress addresses the nation’s budget deficit by cutting Medicare, that will simply shift health care costs to the private sector.

What do they think ObamaCare does?

ACA health insurance application asks about voter registration.

Mar 27, 2013 | 13 comments | by John Goodman

Obama Forced Into ACA’s Exchanges, and Other Links

Senate bill: Obama, Biden and cabinet would have to get health insurance in the exchange.

Animal health care is among the last things to get cut from household budgets. (Following medical care for the owners?)

Insurance industry study: hospitals are to blame for high costs.

FDA backs down on graphically scary pictures on cigarette packages.

Study: Data sharing among hospitals has saved 92,000 lives and $9.1 billion over four and a half years.

Mar 22, 2013 | 11 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

No wonder the VA looks good; they only release the studies they like.

The more doctors use EHRs, the less they like them.

Jurassic Park is impossible.

The feds will be overseeing new health insurance regulations in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming after those states told HHS they couldn’t or wouldn’t implement the new rules.

Mar 21, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Only 6% of U.S. workers are very confident that future Medicare benefits will be equal in value to what seniors receive today.

Workplace wellness programs may not save companies money.

A growing number of doctors have begun holding group appointments — seeing up to a dozen patients with similar medical concerns all at once.

What Medicare pays for an ambulance trip is highly variable, ranging from $99 to $1,218 per transport.

Mar 20, 2013 | 13 comments | by John Goodman

Ryan’s Budget Plan Keeps Tax Increases, and Other Links

Is Ryan hypocritical? Are his critics hypocritical? Or, is everybody being hypocritical?

Economists have been historically libertarian.

The cave man diet isn’t recommended after all.

Mar 19, 2013 | 17 comments | by John Goodman

Increased Medicare Costs Due To Aging, and Other Links

Nearly three-quarters of the spending increases in Medicare over the next two decades can be attributed to aging alone. HT: Arnold Kling.

Miracles happen: The FDA decides to err on the side of drug approval.

Latvian PM to Krugman: By ignoring your advice we became the fastest growing economy in Europe.

Mar 18, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

The liberals’ war on science.

Sex in space may be bad for your health.

AquaBounty first applied to the FDA for approval to sell salmon, genetically engineered to grow twice as fast as normal salmon, in 1993; to this day the FDA is still soliciting comments.

Mar 18, 2013 | 10 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

HHS gives approval for Medicare provider to give away $20 grocery gift cards to induce seniors to get more health screenings. They needed permission? HT: Tyler

Hospitals average only 1.51% in uncompensated care — equally less than half their profit margins.

Study: 1 in 12 ICU patients die from something other than what they were being treated for.

GAO: Unfunded (75 year) liability in ObamaCare: $6.2 trilion.

Mar 15, 2013 | 9 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

ObamaCare tax increases are double original estimate.

The draft application to determine eligibility for ObamaCare subsidies includes a 21-page questionnaire.

Although Medicare spending for patients with advance cancers varies regionally, those differences are unrelated to survival rates.

One-third of U.S. counties are shrinking ― births exceed deaths.

Mar 14, 2013 | 14 comments | by John Goodman