Tag Archives: Healthcare

This is where I grow weary of the childish complaints of those who believe their rights are being infringed upon by those who are injured, maimed, or killed by bullet-spewing-weapons commonly known as “guns.” “Stanley Kubrick satirized the unconscious psychosexual energies behind wielding a gun in Full Metal Jacket, when Marine recruits parade with their weapons doing this chant of ‘This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for fighting, this is...

The 2023 ACA Open Enrollment Period is the best ever. The prime reason being the expansion of enhanced premium subsidies, first introduced in 2021 via the American Rescue Plan. ACA premiums became less costly for those who were already qualified. The lower pricing of ACA plans resulted in the expansion of eligibility to millions who were not previously eligible. The ARP ACA expansion will continue for at least another 3 years under the Inflation...

It has taken a bit of time after Christmas to get back into the swing of things. A week during Christmas while in Breckenridge, I spent it in bed due to Attitude Altitude sickness. One night I was looking at the vertical wood slats on the wall which appeared to be populated with numbers similar to an Excel Spread Sheet. Looking at numbers and doing quick comparisons in manufacturing, distribution, and planning was a good part of my job. I reached for...

From the NYT opinion pages comes Paul Krugman’s description of the two basic problems of a declining population in a country, Dr. Krugman ues China as an example. China’s population declined last year, for the first time since the mass deaths associated with Mao Zedong’s disastrous Great Leap Forward in the 1960s. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that China has announced that its population declined. Many observers are skeptical about...

A bit of history as reviewed on a “woman’s right to decide,” by Professor Heather, “Letters from an American.” Tomorrow marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided that for the first trimester of a pregnancy, “the attending physician, in consultation with his patient, is free to determine, without regulation by the State, that, in his medical judgment, the patient’s pregnancy...

I can not say I have been exposed to any of this switcheroo as my meds are older technology. We are also on regular Medicare and not Medicare Advantage. I have a larger say with the former. Part D works mostly except the pharmacies in my area are less helpful than they were in Michigan. And these drugs do seem to work to my needs for now. Doctor Pelzman does have a major point. The insurance companies, PBMs, distributors (McKesson, etc.) have...

Charles Gaba is doing another update on Covid death rates taking into consideration Partisanship and vaccination rate. At the bottom I include his last update if you wanted to compare commentary. “January Update: COVID Death Rates by Partisan Lean & Vaccination Rate (including BIVALENT BOOSTER data),” ACA Signups, Charles Gaba (sigh) Last month I posted what I assumed would be my final update of the red/blue and vaccination-level COVID...

COVID endemicity: 100,000+ (mainly needless) excess deaths per year – by New Deal democrat I suspect these updates are going to be much less frequent from now on; for example, if a significant new wave is evident.  That’s because, as we start our fourth year of the pandemic, the good news is that it is far less lethal than it was during its first two years. From March 2020 through March 2021, 500,000 Americans died of Covid. Another 500,000...

And the news Media is waking up to this? In December 2022, NPR wrote, “Medicare Advantage plans overcharged Medicare by millions,” Health News : NPR Citing an April 26, 2016 example of US government auditors asked a Blue Cross Medicare Advantage health plan in Minnesota to turn over medical records of patients treated by a podiatry practice whose owner had been indicted for fraud. Medicare had paid the Blue Cross plan more than $20,000 to...

I am hopping around a bit in this commentary. Fair warning. These are different versions taken from various authorities, different periods of time, and saying similar or the same thing. I am going to try to connect the dots here between some old and some more recent occurrences. Costs and prices keep rising in healthcare and are outstripping out ability to pay. Healthcare costs and the resulting prices keep rising and yes even in the...