Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Is Medicare Advantage finally hitting a roadblock?

From everything I’ve read, Medicare Advantage is just as scam. By the time my Lovely And Talented Wife® retired and shifted to Medicare two years ago, she took the regular Medicare. This July when I retired, I followed suit. Turns out, a growing number of hospitals and health systems nationwide have dropped some or all […]

Listeria Contamination with Processed Foods

Usually, listeria contamination comes from poor cleanup after a “lot-size” of a product is complete. It thrives in a moist, colder environment. Lunch meat, hot dog, sausage etc, manufacturing environment can be prone to having listeria contamination. After a lot or a shift is complete, the machines and the rooms have to be cleaned. The […]

Unforeseen Health Care Bills Coverage Denials by U.S. Insurers

Coverage denials as reported by the Commonwealth Fund today almost never happened in the past and was a rare occurrence. The insurance companies would concede to the findings of the examining doctors. The methodology being used today is to deny, deny, deny until the insured and the doctor give up. I think it was 1997 […]

Covid Metrics Ending Week August 31

r.j. sigmund‘s notes on Covid Metrics It appears all US Covid metrics are now heading down except for deaths, but we can expect deaths to head lower in a week or two as well, as the reduced numbers of those who are newly infected work through the health care system…among the CDC’s “early indicators” “test positivity”, […]

Health Care Systems are Starting to Drop Medicare Advantage Plans

Much of this is the result of commercial healthcare gaming the system with pricing. Medicare Advantage can not compete head-to-head with Traditional Medicare much less the VA. VA sent me to Barrows (Arizona) for an issue with my back and right leg. I was going numb and it was painful to walk. So to make […]

Beyond price controls:  Ozempic for all who want it, and a strategic food reserve

Suppose that you wake up tomorrow and discover that a sadistic alien has turned you into an economist.  You are just getting over your shock at your new predicament (“How will I make friends?  Will anyone ever trust me again?  At least I’m not a lawyer.”) when Kamala Harris, responding to voter concerns about inflation, […]

The Impact of Rebates on Measured Inflation of Branded Prescription Drugs

I found this report on Health Affairs a day or so ago. It was long and I spent the last two days condensing it so it could be presented and read on Angry Bear. Briefly, the author(s) detailed four main prices which consist of a List Price, an Out-of-Pocket Price, Insurer’s responsibility price, and the […]

More on the ACA Insurance Fraud Scheme

Been lucky to have Andrew Sprung of xpostfactoid writing on the topic of perpetrators conceiving, executing, and expanding their carefully planned scheme of large-scale unauthorized plan-switching amongst ACA healthcare insurance subscribers. In the end, people switched over to other plans get lesser healthcare insurance than what they had signed up for initially with a different […]

New Medicaid Rule Adds to Commercial Hospital Price Inflation

New Medicaid Rule Adds Fuel to The Fire of Commercial Hospital Price Inflation, Health Affairs Opinion Piece Hospital services prices grew faster than any other sector of the US economy. To address the underpayment of hospitals by Medicaid, the federal government issued a regulation correcting the underpayment of hospitals. However, the issue of higher prices and […]

States Continue to Enact Protections for Patients with Medical Debt

Two in five Americans have outstanding health care bills, according to the Kaiser Foundation. Those with payments overdue are more likely to be uninsured, low-income, and either Black or Hispanic. What’s more, the total amount of outstanding medical debt in the United States is much bigger than people think. ~~~~~~~ Most states have not yet enacted […]