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

59% of People Retaining Medicaid Coverage Were Renewed Through Ex Parte Processes 

Medicaid Renewals Of the people retaining Medicaid Coverage as of April 11, 2024 . . . Fifty-nine percent were renewed on an ex parte basis while 41% were renewed through a renewal form, though rates varied by state. Federal rules require states to first try to complete administrative (or “ex parte”) renewals by verifying ongoing eligibility […]

Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker

by KFF Pulled together data from KFF to get an idea of what is happening with US healthcare. Big issue is people do not know. Another issue is state’s resistance to enrolling people. Hope this helps . . . Recent data on monthly Medicaid disenrollments, renewals, overall enrollment and other key indicators. Figure 1 above […]

How much should a life-saving drug cost?

My former chairman used to tell the story of when he was a resident on rounds in the 1950s, he would hear a pounding sound in some of the patient rooms. When he looked in to discover the source, it was a nurse pounding the back of a patient who was stretched across the bed […]

The semaglutide camel’s nose under the Medicare tent

Obesity is a risk factor for cancer, heart disease stroke and diabetes. Thus, drugs like semaglutides (Wegovy, Ozempic) don’t just reduce weight in the obese, they also reduce risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes, which are huge health care burdens. It’s good to see that Medicare is finally coming to grips with this […]

Scamming People with Phony ACA Healthcare Insurance Plans

I am not surprised scamming like this is occurring. There are always people operating under false names or using corporate entities as a way to scam others. I think trump helped to open the door for much more of this to happen. Here are six different ways scamming has been happening. No funds passed . […]

Trump’s VA Plans Look Too Much Like Biden’s VA Reality

Since I use the VA, I find this message by Suzanne and Steve to be discerning. I had thought with the changes in leadership, the VA would begin to act like a VA and take back all of the programs which were being out sourced to external expensive healthcare. Study after study has shown, VA […]

Next generation mRNA vaccines

In 2020, I was a subject in the Moderna phase III trial for their COVID mRNA vaccine. At the same time, Pfizer-BioNTec trialed a similar mRNA vaccine. Both mRNA vaccines proved highly successful. In both cases, chemically modified mRNA encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is injected, programming cells that receive the mRNA to produce and […]

Freedom Echoing: A legislative fix for health care?

by Kip Sullivan JD This is a long one covering managed care and value-based care healthcare in Minnesota. The topic being why it hasn’t worked. It is worth the read. Angry Bear has covered Kip’s message on healthcare in an effort to show why healthcare costs are out of control. “The commission recommends the new […]

Tobacco without smoking

When I was in college, I took up pipe smoking. I particularly enjoyed Turkish Latakia tobacco and Native Cigarettes, smoked through a long-stemmed church warden clay pipe. But shortly after I got married, my wife told me to stop. Smoking is a particularly dangerous nicotine delivery system. Nowadays, there is vaping products like these Geek […]

Commercial Health Insurance Practices Delay Care and Increase Costs

Brief recital of the costs and efforts of hospitals getting reimbursed by commercial healthcare insurance. It appears to be worsening. And the efforts to collect are costly. A Survey of Healthcare Insurance Practices Survey Methodology – 304 respondents, representing 772 hospitals, completed the survey. Not every respondent answered each question. All respondents are members of […]