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

Biden Administration Taking Action To Limit Junk Healthcare Insurance

About half of this is original and the other half is a rewrite. Just explaining things more than the author. What President Joe Biden is doing is repealing trumps Short Term Healthcare Coverage which today is less than 365 days. This was extended from prior 3-month coverage (maximum 4 months) when Congress failed to repeal […]

Who is Deciding How to Spend $50 Billion in Opioid Settlement Cash?

Angry Bear has been writing about the Opioid epidemic and what has been influencing it for years. I was asked to write on it by an association and continued to do so. It would seem there should be more money coming forth from companies who promoted its use. If we go back and read the […]

Another tool in the pandemic toolkit

The existential risks associated with global warming include coastal flooding, loss of fresh water, desertification, life-threatening temperatures and loss of ocean fisheries. Another risk is the spread of infectious diseases that are normally restricted to tropical latitudes. While the prospect of eliminating insect vectors such as Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes, tsetse flies and triatomine bugs […]

The science of climate change

In my early days of following Angry Bear, there was a climate change denialist troll whose handle was “CoRev.” Most of the stuff CoRev posted was standard denialist fare that had been debunked. At the time, one favorite denialist claim was the “hiatus,” a period between 2001 and 2014 during which warming seemed to “pause.” […]

Arguments from authority

In humans, the traits of high intelligence and good judgment are unlinked. There are many such examples; viz: • Kary Mullis, who won for co-inventing the technique behind PCR testing, went on to deny that HIV causes AIDS, helping to sway South African president Thabo Mbeki into rejecting antiretroviral therapy, costing hundreds of thousands of […]

Pharmacies making Generic Versions are being sued by Manufacturers

“Generic drugs are approved only after a rigorous review by FDA and after a set period of time that the brand product has been on the market exclusively. A generic drug is a medication with the exact same active ingredient as the brand-name drug.” It is not unusual to buy generic versions of a particular […]

The Medicare Advantage Quality Bonus Program: High Cost for Uncertain Gain

The Medicare Advantage Quality Bonus Program, Urban Institute, Laura Skopec and Robert A. Berenson The following is an introduction and a portion of a very readable report to which the link can be found at the end of this introduction. The findings are similar as to what Kip Sullivan and others have been reporting all […]

How Often Do Health Insurers Deny Patients’ Claims?

Similar story as what Medicare Advantage does in comparison to Traditional Medicare. Denials in commercial healthcare sound very similar as to what is found in Medicare Advantage plans. Similarities are the same companies sell both types of healthcare insurance. What has come into play with commercial healthcare is the PPACA which can force commercial healthcare […]

Hospital and Pharmacy’s Profit Stream that Was Supposed to Help Patients

This is a long post. Briefly in the beginning, the article discusses what the 340B program is about. It is pretty simple. The government has the pharmaceutical companies provide drugs to low income neighborhood facilities at a much lower price than what they would charge to hospitals in higher income areas. This is based upon […]