Tag Archives: politics

In May of 2023 The $20 Billion Scam At The Heart Of Medicare Advantage, PNHP, Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Andrew Perez, Lever News, May 2023. Health insurance company Humana enjoyed a banner year in 2022. Humana made $2.8 billion in profits in 2022, while paying out $448 million in dividends to shareholders, and paying more than $17 million in compensation to its CEO. One of the main inputs to those earnings was the federal government’s $20.5...

“REACHing” for Equity — Moving from Regressive toward Progressive Value-Based Payment, NEJM, Suhas Gondi, Karen Joynt Maddox, and Rishi K. Wadhera. A pretty good take on Value Based Payment Programs and what are the issues. Keep in mind, who determines what the value is to the patient. What is the rub here. Who ascertains the degree of value or is it just the profit motive driving this program also. Just like Medicare Advantage . . . service and...

The article (example) is about one person suffering from an ailment at 19. Hospitalized at an out-of-network facility, the burden of costs for treatment were his responsibility due to insurance denial. A particular issue with commercial healthcare insurance not covering the costs of treatment because you went to the wrong doctor, etc. for care. More on his case after the intro. There are more than 100 million people in America caught up in...

PPI and CPI preview: why Paul Krugman’s “Goldilocks” economy is likely to prove “transitory” – by New Deal democrat Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. Every now and then, real life intrudes and, well, yesterday was one of those days. All of the economic data this week is going to be crammed into tomorrow through Friday.  Most importantly for present purposes, I am very interested in dissecting both the producer and consumer price...

I use the Veterans Administration also. I do not use it as widely as I could and I am ineligible for some of the care I really need. This does not mean it doesn’t offer the care I might need. I leave it for those who can not go elsewhere and maybe do not have insurance. I was based out of Lejuene and did drink and bath in the water. Been exposed and I believe it has had an impact on my blood. Just try and prove it though. It is discouraging to...

The budget deficit is the change in the nominal face value of public debt. It is roughly unique (as far as I know) being the change in a quantity which is not corrected for inflation. We do not usually talk about nominal GDP growth or nominal wage growth. The sustainable deficit increases one for one in debt*inflation, so the term should be removed if one is thinking of long term sustainability. I think the reason the absurd number is used is...

Then I really was going to skip today, even as–indeed, because–it is the 50th anniversary of 11 September. The original 11 de Septiembre, that is. Once is history, twice is parody. Feuerbach, as with Marx, was an optimist. Chile took only 17 years to get rid of Pinochet, and they did it at the ballot box. Twenty-two years later, the U.S. is still recovering something, though I’m no longer certain what. Are we trying to avoid torture?...

This is a good take on what has driven the decline in inflation or at least it is what I believe. Mike has an explanation on the Phillip Curve within his article. I skipped by it as I felt it was addition to the supply side explanation. Or not needed as a part of the explanation. Supply-Side Expansion Has Driven the Decline in Inflation, Roosevelt Institute, Mike Konczal “After two years of persistently rising prices, inflation has finally...

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...

Despite 6+ month low in initial claims, yellow caution flag remains  – by New Deal democrat Last week the initial claims numbers justified restarting the yellow caution flag. This week initial jobless claims declined -13,000 to a 6+ month low of 216,000. The 4-week moving average declined -8,500 to 229,250. With a one-week lag, continuing claims declined 40,000 to 1.679 million: Since last year ago at this time also saw a steep decline, it...