Tag Archives: Healthcare

This is mostly a recital of an article by Peterson-KFF (March 2022) on medical debt as held by average people. A few tweaks here and there. The article content adds another block of reasoning to the foundation for Medicare for All, single payer, etc. It is long and I know some who have short attention spans. Myself? I like numbers as it tells me more in a direct fashion than decipher words and intent. If you have a few minutes, read it and scan the...

To detail why this is so important, I turn to Doctor Barry J. Jacobs: “Caregivers, like marathon runners, must learn the lay of the land, find a sustainable pace and accept replenishment along their journey if they have any hope of gamely persevering from start to finish line. With this metaphor in mind, we can say that the family member who accepts this role blindly is akin to the misguided runner in Crocs and jeans with no clue about how far...

In a previous post, I mentioned an effective way to curtail illegal immigration—require all employees to be screened through E-Verify—and some reasons why it won’t be adopted. Another disincentive to deterring illegal immigration is that it subsidizes Social Security and Medicare:“ . . . illegal immigrants as a group are net contributors who partially pay into the trust funds while receiving little in return, but amnesty would transform them into net...

This is a smaller version of a larger article in The Atlantic. I believe I have captured all of the issues needing to be presented. A hospital’s delivery of healthcare is more than just profit-taking to which the big firms invest their money. With the involvement of private equity firms buying up hospital chains, the hospitals are being squeezed for their returns, saddled with debt, and leaving a shell of what was worst then before. Along the way, a...

September JOLTS report shows continued deceleration in all trends – except layoffs  – by New Deal democrat All of the major metrics in last month’s JOLTS report for August improved, most slightly, but the decelerating trend continued. In this morning’s report for September, that trend continued, as most of the metrics improved or declined very slightly, but the trends remained intact. Here are openings (blue), hires (red), and voluntary...

Emergency Physician and Pennsylvania state representative Arvind Venkat, MD has a detail story to tell about the impact of healthcare upon patients who can not afford the insurance, or are under insured, and opt to deny healthcare. And most can not afford the payments resulting from Medical Debt. This is a good plan and the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on a “bipartisan vote” supported it. Medical Debt Is Killing Our Patients | MedPage...

Coronavirus update through October 30, 2023  – by New Deal democrat No important economic news today, but it’s been a while since I took a look at the COVID-19 data, and there is an interesting trend, so let’s have at it! But first, some bad news. The most reliable data for infections for the past year has been from Biobot, which tracked wastewater nationwide. Well, they lost their contract, which was won by a Google subsidiary called...

Vaccination is one of the great triumphs of humanity over infectious disease. Smallpox was such a plague that George Washington mandated inoculation for all Continental soldiers in 1777. Prior to the polio vaccine, most Americans knew a friend or relative who contracted polio; today, it’s virtually unheard of, just like mumps and whooping cough. The COVID vaccines, particularly the mRNA vaccines of Moderna and Pfizer, are a triumph of genetic...

What is occurring in this announcement is GoodRx working or negotiating with Sanofi to reduce out-of-pocket costs to consumers for Sanofi’s Lantus, a treatment for diabetes. The out of pocket costs will be capped at $35.00. Great cost relief news for people who are not on Medicare, etc. More of the GoodRx announcement below. GoodRx Announces New Way for Consumers to Access Sanofi’s Lantus for $35 at Over 70,000 Pharmacies Nationwide, GoodRx,...

Just got done exchanging a couple of emails with Steve about Suzanne’s and his latest commentary about the growing privatization of the VA. Looks like the VA is farming out more of the veteran’s care to contractors which will come at a much higher cost. Outsourcing to for-profit entities is not a good practice. We can see how Medicare Advantage plans are costing far more than Medicare and depleting Medicare funding. Similar is happening with the VA...