Massachusetts Senate Uses a Big Tobacco Tactic: Votes Not to Allocate Master Settlement Agreement Money to Smoking Prevention and Cessation; In that Light, the Flavor Ban is Disingenuous
Anyone who thought the Massachusetts state Senate ' s probable passage of a bill tonight that will ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and menthol tobacco cigarettes is motivated by a pure desire to protect kids and reduce tobacco-related diseases is mistaken. The supporters of this legislation showed their true colors tonight by rejecting an amendment that would have required that the state allocate a mere 10% of the money it receives from the Master Settlement Agreement to smoking prevention and cessation programs.It was quite a sight to witness. Senator after senator got up and spoke about how terrible smoking is and ...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 21, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Medicaid Improper Payments are Much Worse Than Reported
Aaron Yelowitz andBrian BlaseEarlier this week, Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS)raised its estimate of Medicaid ’s improper payments from $36 billion (9.8 percent of federal Medicaid expenditures) to $57 billion (14.9 percent of federal Medicaid expenditures). Actually, the situation is far worse than these estimates suggest. As we discussed in a Wall Street Journalop-ed after the numbers were released, Medicaid ’s improper payments now almost certainly exceed $75 billion – or more than 20 percent of federal Medicaid expenditures.This year ’s report shows not only a significant increase in CMS’s esti...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 20, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Aaron Yelowitz, Brian Blase Source Type: blogs
Bill Passed by Massachusetts House Would Allow Police to Seize Cars from Vapers who Possess DIY or Black Market E-Liquids
But You Can Drive With Marijuana or Cartons of Marlboros in Your Car To Your Heart ' s ContentJacob Sullum, a senior editor atReason, has revealed a striking set of provisions in thebill (H4183) passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives on Wednesday. These provisions would allow the police to seize your vehicle if you possess any DIY or black market e-liquids in your car.The relevant provision in the bill reads as follows:" When the commissioner or a police officer discovers an untaxed electronic nicotine delivery system in the possession of a person who is not a licensed or commissioner-authorized electronic ni...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 15, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
HHS Moves To Lift LGBT-Bias Funding Strings
Walter OlsonOn Friday, the Department of Health and Human Servicesproposed to rescind some regulations issued in the final days of the Obama administration that required recipients of HHS program funds to observe nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.The move, which now enters a public comment period, is beingcovered in thepress as an issue of religious accommodation: should church-affiliated agencies be allowed to participate in federally funded adoption and foster care placements even if they decline to serve same-sex couples as clients? And that is indeed one of the hotly contested iss...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 4, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Walter Olson Source Type: blogs
New Bill Renews Debate on Nuclear Modernization
Eric GomezOn Tuesday, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) reintroduced bicameral legislation that would save U.S. taxpayers $75 billion on nuclear modernization costs over the next decade. The “Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act, ” or SANE Act, proposes sensible but significant cuts to “nuclear weapons and delivery systems.”According to apress release from Sen. Markey ’s office, the SANE Act will include the following:Reduce the purchase of Columbia-class submarines from 12 to 8, cut the existing ICBM fleet from over 400 to 150, and reduce deployed strategic warheads from ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 1, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Eric Gomez Source Type: blogs
Getting to universal health care (wonky)
Much sturm und drang has attached to Elizabeth Warren ' s reticence about the financing of a so-called Medicare for All program. So I ' ll tell you up front that the reason is the optical problem of raising taxes. She has said that total expenditures on health care for middle class people will be less, which is likely true or certainly can be. But some of what people are paying now they aren ' t even aware that they are paying. This takes the form of employer-provided health care, and that portion of state and federal tax revenues that goes to Medicaid and various subsidies for the health care system. The latter wouldn ' t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 30, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Republican Study Committee Proposes an $11 Trillion Tax Cut
Michael F. CannonThe Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House Republicans, has issued a health reform proposal. It ' s not the first thing onthe RSC web site, but scroll down and you ' ll find it. The proposal has much to commend it.Freeing Consumers from Harmful RegulationsNotably, it would repeal the Affordable Care Act ' sconsistentlyunpopular preexisting-conditions provisions, which not onlymake coverage worse for the sick butleaveeveryACA enrollee with inadequate coverage. (Can you say, " junk insurance " ?) One of the reasons Republicanssuffered losses in the 2018 mid-term elections was their failure...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 23, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Michael F. Cannon Source Type: blogs
Expensive Medicare patients aren ’t who you think
Over half of Medicare spending is concentrated in 10 percent of patients. With Medicare expenditures rising at an unsustainable clip, reigning in the costs of those patients is key to controlling health care spending. So who are those patients and what expenses are they racking up? It ’s not who or what I expected. When I […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 22, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/peter-ubel" rel="tag" > Peter Ubel, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Policy Medicare Public Health & Source Type: blogs
Government Expansion Increases Wealth Inequality
Chris EdwardsFederal and state governments run many social programs that support lower and middle-income households. One cost of such programs is that they undermine the incentives and the means for households to accumulate savings. Effectively, they displace, or “crowd out,” private wealth-building, particularly for non-wealthy households.As government programs for retirement, healthcare, and other needs have expanded, more private wealth has likely been displaced, and wealth inequality has grown. Leftists decry wealth inequality, but their efforts to expand government likely increases it. Larry Summers made this poin...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 21, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
Welfare State Causes Wealth Inequality —Euro Experience
Chris EdwardsDemocrats running for president are condemning wealth inequality while calling for an increase in social spending. But expanding social spending would magnify wealth inequality, not reduce it, because it would displace private wealth accumulation by lower- and middle-income households.Evidence comes froma study by Pirmin Fessler and Martin Schurz for the European Central Bank. The authors explore the relationship between government social spending and wealth distribution in 13 European countries using a survey database of 62,000 households. The database contains household balance sheet information.Regression a...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 18, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
Primary Care Is at the Center of a Health Revolution
By KEVIN WANG, MD
If our
urgent-care-as-healthcare culture isn’t killing us, it’s certainly wasting our
time and resources.
Consider these facts highlighted by Advanced Medical Reviews, based on various studies:
U.S. physicians report that more than 20 percent of overall medical
care is not needed. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that up to
30 percent of the costs of medical care delivered in the U.S. pay for tests,
procedures, doctor visits, hospital stays, and other services that may not
actually improve patient health. Unnecessary medical treatment impacts the healthca...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 2, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Hospitals Medical Practice Physicians Primary Care advanced primary care Care coordination health coaching Kevin Wang value-based care Vera Whole Health Source Type: blogs
New Cato Journal Features an Array of Articles on Urgent Monetary Matters
Amanda GriffithsThe Fall 2019 edition of theCato Journal, the Cato Institute ’s interdisciplinary journal of public policy, is now available online. Readers of Alt-M will find the articles on monetary and financial topics of special interest. Their topics range from financial inclusion, to macroprudential policy, to Modern Monetary Theory, to the politicization of the Fede ral Reserve, to European monetary policy. Here are links to the full-text articles–followed by a summary of each."Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion"Drawn from remarks he delivered at the Cato Institute ’s Financial Inclusion Summit this p...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 2, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Amanda Griffiths Source Type: blogs
Using Its Emergency Powers, Rest of the Story Issues Four-Month Temporary Ban on Further E-Cigarette Bans
Today, I am bypassing the usual rulemaking process and using my emergency powers to declare a public health emergency and accordingly, I am issuing a four-month, temporary ban on politicians enacting further electronic cigarette bans.The purpose of this public health emergency is to temporarily pause all knee-jerk reaction e-cigarette bans so that we can work with our vaping and cannabis market experts to identify what is actually making people sick and how to better regulate these products to protect the health of our residents without putting thousands of small business owners out of work, forcing thousands of ex-smokers...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - September 27, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Weekend catch-up sleep won ’t fix the effects of sleep deprivation on your waistline
Sleeping in late on a Saturday sounds delicious, right? However, as with many delicious things, there may be a cost to your health and waistline.
Catching up on sleep on the weekend can almost feel like the norm these days. With increasingly full schedules and competing demands, sleep is often sacrificed during the busy workweek. As the week comes to an end, many people look to the less structured weekend to cram in what couldn’t be done during the week, including sleep. In sleep clinic, I now ask “When do you get up on work (or school) days?” and “What about bedtime and wakeup time on days off?” The catch-up tim...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 24, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Katherine Dudley, MD, MPH Tags: Diabetes Diet and Weight Loss Fatigue Sleep Source Type: blogs
Drivers of health care expenditure: final report
Centre for Health Economics -Since the NHS was established growth in health care expenditure (HCE) has outpaced the rise in both GDP and in total public expenditure. Known drivers of HCE growth include demographic factors, income and wealth effects, technology and cost pressures. To identify the challenges and opportunities for developing a model of health care demand, this report looks at drivers of past trends in health care expenditure and how much each of the drivers has contributed to past increases in expenditure. It also investigates how much each type of service contributed to past trends in health care expenditure...
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - August 29, 2019 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: NHS finances and productivity Source Type: blogs
