This is Robert Book, writing at the Apothecary: The Affordable Care Act does not define what it means for a premium increase to be “unreasonable,” but the administration defined it in a regulation issued in May. An increase is defined as “unreasonable” if it is “more than 10%.” (76 FR 29964). So, if a health [...]One of the main advantages of Medicare FFS [fee for service] is that beneficiaries do not need a referral for any services and are not limited to certain provider networks. However, Medicare beneficiaries do not pay for these added benefits. In addition, even if HMOs are more efficient than Medicare FFS, Medicare FFS beneficiaries still [...] 1. The HPV Vaccine 2. Apple Juice 3. Gulf Coast Fish 4. Hydraulic Fracturing, or “Fracking” 5. Sunscreen 6. Fluoridated Water 7. Cell Phones 8. Genetically Modified Fish 9. Fragrances 10. Phthalates See in-depth breakdown of each scare at the American Council on Science and Health’s website. HT to John Dunn. 90% of U.S. bank notes carry traces of cocaine. The government will pay for a lifetime of dialysis ($75,000 a year) for an illegal alien, but not for the $100,000 transplant that would make it unnecessary. Nearly One in Three Will Be Arrested by Age 23. What Most Needs Repealing and Replacing Health Problem Quantified Is Medicare a Good Deal? Bad News for ObamaCare Are Market-Oriented Economists Wrong About Health Care? Krugman Gets It Wrong Again Is RomneyCare Different from ObamaCare? This one was written by one of our talented guest authors, Linda Gorman. Why Do We Need Unions? What Is [...]
[WSJ] After an Israeli biotech company stopped working on a promising medication, two U.S. families took an unusual step: They bought the drug and decided to develop it themselves as a possible treatment for their children's muscular dystrophy.
The Secklers, of Stockbridge, Mass., and the Wicka family, from Minneapolis, are hoping ...Using cardiovascular disease as an example, [the authors] note that 44 percent of the reduction in mortality from 1980 to 2000 was due to improved health behaviors. Another 22 percent of the decline was due to inexpensive Category I treatments such as aspirin and beta blockers, 12 percent was due to Category II treatments like [...]The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that the registered nurse (RN) will be the fastest growing profession between 2008 and 2018. And the profession is financially rewarding. The BLS estimates that the average salary for a registered nurse in 2010 was $67,720, or $32.56 an hour. In 2009 the average salary was $63,750, [...]Last year, the government’s Institute of Medicine urged the Food and Drug Administration to “gradually step down the maximum amount of salt that can be added to foods, beverages and meals.” The FDA is listening. In September, it published a notice concerning issues “associated with the development of targets for sodium reduction in foods to [...]The results were surprising: The advance directives only saved money in areas where Medicare’s end-of-life costs are high. Think Florida and New York. In areas where Medicare’s costs are already low — say, Minnesota — there was no change in spending…. The big difference, in fact, was that patients with end-of-life directives in high-costs areas [...]This is Sarah Kliff (at Ezra Klein’s blog): The crowds never showed and the program’s enrollment has lagged far behind projections. The chief actuary for Medicare initially estimated that 375,000 people would sign up by the end of 2010. As of Oct. 1, only 41,427 have enrolled. A new report from the Government Accountability Office [...]
Also: the cost of failed metal-on-metal artificial hips; helping baby boomer workers stay fit; how appropriate is care in the ICU?
One of the interesting things about social media is catching up with people from your past and finding out what they are doing now. I have caught up with quite a few people who have spread out all over the globe and whom I would have never have heard from otherwise. One of the friends [...]
The Beauregarde Affair is great narrative nonfiction about the author’s time in the 1970s living with his sex drug and rock and roll friends in a house on North Morningside Drive in Atlanta, GA. The author and his friends lived in a stately older home in the Morningside neighborhood of Atlanta while they carried on [...]
The new ebook Roaccutane: The Truth, by Stefan Lay of Norwich, United Kingdom, offers an honest and informative view from a patient’s (or should we say victim?) perspective on the side effects of the acne drug Accutane (Roaccutane in the UK and Europe, generic isotretinoin) which I have written about previously on this blog. Stefan [...]