More than half the states want permission to remove hundreds of thousands of people from the Medicaid insurance program. Nearly every state has nipped at parts of the program, which currently insures 53 million Americans.
Congressional report: Medicaid expansion in the health care law will cost the states at least billion $118 over ten years. That’s nearly twice the $60 billion recently estimated by the Congressional Budget Office. (HT to Chris Jacobs)
Patient illiteracy: 90 million Americans can’t understand discharge instructions if they are written above a fifth-grade level.
People don’t think they’re fat unless their doctor tells them they’re fat. That includes almost 37% of the overweight and 19% of the obese whose physicians didn’t talk to them about weight.
Canadian baby update: The hospital under fire for ordering parents to remove their young son from life support because he is a vegetative state has backed down and agreed to let the boy die at home.
Five U.S. District Court judges agree: The penalty for people who don’t get health insurance starting in 2014 is not a tax.
International trend: average gross medical spending rose 10.2% in 2009 at two to three times the rate of general inflation.
The average Milwaukee public-school teacher salary is $56,500. But with benefits, the total package is $100,005.
The rates of back surgery among Medicare beneficiaries range from 1.7 surgeries per 1,000 in the Honolulu area to 10 per 1,000 in Casper, Wyoming. Also, lots of regional variation in elective surgery rates for early-stage breast cancer, knee and hip arthritis, gallstones and other conditions.
Proposal: the healthiest and youngest 20 percent of renal failure patients should be given the best kidneys. The remaining 80 percent of patients would wait longer, and the age difference between kidney donors and recipients would be no more than 15 years. (The New York Times endorses the idea this morning.)
Passengers who used public transportation infrequently had almost six times as great a risk of developing a respiratory infection as did regular riders. The latter must build up immunity.
Entrepreneurship lock: More businesses are started just after people turn 65 (and become eligible for Medicare) than just before age 65. (HT to Jason Shafrin)
Study: Exercise is good for brain power.
Hypocrisy, thy name is …. Federal employees are forbidden to collectively bargain for wages or benefits; instead, raises are determined annually through legislation.
Employee burnout can be predicted from simple test. Your blood and the level of a hormone in your spit is all that’s needed.
One of four New Yorkers is on Medicaid. The state spends more per beneficiary than neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut—or any other state.
Study: high-quality hospitals have death rates that are 34 percent lower than average-quality hospitals. They also spend nearly 22 percent less.
The worst place to die is New Jersey, which has a combined effective estate and inheritance tax rate of 54.1%. HT to Greg Mankiw.
37 million potential surgeries. The FDA has sanctioned use of gastric banding for weight-loss surgery in a wider range of patients.
Study: Medicare’s (risk adjusted) premiums encourage health plans to attract the healthy and avoid the sick. Small changes could help.
New Hampshire Governor to hospitals: stop building.
The Internal Revenue Service says it will need 1,054 new auditors and staffers just to watch over the initial implementation of President Obama’s health care reforms. Total cost to taxpayers will be more than $359 million in fiscal 2012.
CIA Retiree Arrested, Dragged Off Violently, Brutalized, Handcuffed, and Jailed After Standing And Turning his Back During Hillary Speech (HT to David Henderson, who has since backtracked here.)
Fake Doctors’ Notes Being Handed Out at Wisconsin Gov. Union Rally
Woman Falls Ill In Philly Airport Terminal, Dies After Waiting 40 Minutes For Help…
Heart Disease is the Number One Killer of Male Gorillas in North American Zoos. They were fed vitamin-rich, high-sugar and high-starch foods for decades.
CDC: Prescription painkiller overdose deaths exceed cocaine and heroin deaths combined.
How do you find a male dance partner at a nursing home where women outnumber men 3 to 1? Hire them. (HT to David Henderson)
Who’s your daddy? Do-it-yourself paternity DNA tests now available in New York.
Defensive medicine is the reason for one of every five imaging tests (x-rays, MRIs, CTs, etc.). It accounts for more than one-third of the costs of imaging.
