from Dean Baker I’m not one to generally tout the wisdom of the economics discipline, but it actually does offer some useful insights into the likely motive for the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare (UHC). According to media accounts, the suspect, Luigi Mangione, was angered by his own and others’ experiences being turned down when submitting claims for healthcare service. United and other insurers make a profit by restricting the claims they pay, so their profit...
Read More »Social Security and Medicare Changes in 2025
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Social Security adjustments are coming up starting January 2025. As if typical the increase in payment did not keep up with inflation last year. If you have not been keeping track of forth coming Social Security changes in 2025, here they are: Starting in 2025, Medicare Part B premiums will increase from $174.70 per month […] The post Social Security and Medicare Changes in 2025 appeared first on Angry Bear.
Read More »Difference in Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage Care
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Government made it possible for people to choose between Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage for their care at 65. An alternative was provided under the guise of commercial healthcare providing better healthcare and other services to those who qualify for Medicare at a lesser cost. There are superficial and also meaningful pluses that are […] The post Difference in Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage Care appeared first on Angry...
Read More »Where Does Traditional Medicare Go: Profit-Driven Chaos or Patient-Centered Community?
by Matthew Cunnigham – Cook The problems with Medicare Advantage is coding and pricing for care. And Fee for Service participants pay for the MA costs even though they do not use MA. “When accounting for favorable selection of enrollees in MA and higher MA coding intensity, we estimate Medicare spends approximately 22 percent more for MA enrollees. This spend is more than if those beneficiaries were a part of FFS Medicare. The difference...
Read More »Texas Seniors Suddenly Lose Medicare Benefits
Suzanne Blake Newsweek Nothing unique here. Just another Texas screwup while trying to eliminate people from state and federal programs. The problem being they mistakenly injure the innocents. No problem though, it happens in other states or so Texans claim. Hundreds of Texas seniors lost their Medicare benefits after Texas Health and Human Services made an error in the Medicare Savings Program. “Medicare is health insurance for people...
Read More »No, Medicare is not running out of money
There are issues with Medicare which are easily fixed. Maggie Mahar was writing on healthcare at Angry Bear. I did the editing. I picked up on the issues with her on healthcare and have portrayed writers such as Merrill, Kip Sullivan, Charles Gaba, Steve Early, Susan Gordon, Andrew Sprung, etc. There are issues with healthcare such as cost. Then there are make believe issues such as Medicare being in trouble. The same is true of Social...
Read More »Republican Budget Cuts Earned Benefits; Keeps Trump Tax Cuts
Angry Bears’ Social Security expert Dale Coberly emailed this to me about the same time it showed up in my inbox. Republicans again are trying to sell the public on the need to cut Social Security and Medicare Budgets for those over 65. Cutting them while keeping the Trump tax breaks which will result in a $2 trillion deficit by the time Reconciliation measures end in 2025. The cuts makes no sense as both programs are far more efficient and effect...
Read More »Semaglutides and the next public health revolution
It is hard to overstate the transformational public health benefits of anti-hypertensives and statins for blood pressure and serum cholesterol control. For a modest cost, these drugs not only mitigate human suffering but save billions, if not trillions, of dollars by avoiding costly surgical interventions.The repurposing of anti-diabetic drugs like semaglutide and tirzepatide for weight loss in obese populations promises to be similarly...
Read More »Illegal immigration and Social Security/Medicare
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...
Read More »Medicare Spending Curve Bent
In 2010 Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Acts (there were 2) from now on called the ACA. One of the aims was to bend the Medicare spending curve and, they hoped (or dreamed) stop the increase in spending per beneficiary. The spending per beneficiary ceased increasing. Oh crap Chrome refuses to upload an image (and says I am offline while also opening other pages. I should have kept my oath). sorry for...
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