So what can we do about health care costs?
By MATTHEW HOLT
Last week Jeff Goldsmith wrote a great article in part explaining why health care costs in the US went up so much between 1965 and 2010. He also pointed out that health care has been the same portion of GDP for more than a decade (although we haven’t had a major recession in that time other than the Covid 2020 blip when it went up to 19%). However, it’s worth remembering that we are spending 17.3% of GDP while the other main OECD countries are spending 11-12%. Now it’s true that the US has lots of social problems that show up in heath spending and also that those other countries probably spend ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 20, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Matthew Holt Buzz Cooper Datmouth health spending Jeff Goldsmith John Wennberg Medicare Price controls Source Type: blogs
The Optimism of Digital Health
By JONATHON FEIT
Journalists like being salty. Like many venture investors, we who are no longer “green” have finely tuned BS meters that like to rip off the sheen of a press release to reach the truthiness underneath. We ask, is this thing real? If I write about XYZ, will I be embarrassed next year to learn that it was the next Theranos?
Yet journalists must also be optimistic—a delicate balance: not so jaded that one becomes boooring, not so optimistic that one gets giddy at each flash of potential; and still enamored of the belief that every so often, something great will remake the present paradigm.
T...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 9, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Tech AI DHIS West Jonathon Feit Michelle Snyder venture capital Source Type: blogs
Navigating recession with cash flow: a vital lesson for savvy investors
In times of economic uncertainty and recessionary storms, the significance of cash flow becomes an indispensable lesson for experienced investors. While market turbulence may seem daunting, focusing on cash flow can act as a robust financial lifeline, providing stability, resilience, and unparalleled opportunities to weather the storm and emerge stronger on the other side. Cash
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Navigating recession with cash flow: a vital lesson for savvy investors originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 3, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Pranay Parikh, MD Tags: Finance Practice Management Source Type: blogs
Inflation Has Been Coming Down So Fed ’s Rate Pause Is Reasonable
Norbert Michel andJai KediaOn Wednesday the Fed decided to keep its rate target steady, ina range of 5.0 percent to 5.25 percent. On the heels of one of the steepest rate ‐increasing campaigns in its history (the target was near zero in February 2022), Fed officials are selling this choice as a pause. According to Fed ChairmanJay Powell:We have raised our policy interest rate by five percentage points, and we ’ve continued to reduce our security holdings at a brisk pace. We’ve covered a lot of ground and the full effects of our tightening have yet to be felt.Given the recent inflation figures, it ’s difficu...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 15, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Norbert Michel, Jai Kedia Source Type: blogs
Ambiguous Economy Is the Latest Result of Fed ’s Increased Discretionary Behavior
Jai KediaRecent articles byPolitico and theWall Street Journal detail the difficult economic environment the Fed must navigate in the coming months along with highlighting the missteps the Fed has made in dealing with post ‐Covid inflation. The articles show that in response to inflation, the Fed executed its steepest and fastest series of rate hikes in 40 years. Once again, this has raised several questions into the internal workings of the Fed and the general obscurity with which it has been conducting monetar y policy. While the Fed’s recent performance has garnered significantmedia attention, as mynew Cato work...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 13, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jai Kedia Source Type: blogs
Misleading Debt Limit Deal Math Counts Phantom Savings
Romina BocciaWithin mere days of the X ‑day deadline for when the federal government would run out of wiggle room to keep borrowing under the statutory debt limit, the President’s and House Speaker McCarthy’s negotiators released theFiscal Responsibility Act (H.R.3746). Here ’s what you need to know to judge its impact on addressing the U.S. debt problem:Waives the Debt LimitThe bill suspends the debt limit until January 1, 2025. A suspension acts like a waiver. The bill temporarily eliminates the debt limit, allowing for unlimited borrowing for about a year and a half.It ’s curious that Republicans agreed ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 1, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Romina Boccia Source Type: blogs
From Debt Ceiling Crisis to Debt Crisis
Romina BocciaThe U.S. government teeters on the brink of defaulting on its payment obligations over the next few weeks as the debt limit threatens to bind in early June. There ’s been extensivecoverage about the potential for catastrophic impacts on the economy if Congress and the President do not raise the debt ceiling. What ’s missing from the debate is serious consideration of the potentially catastrophic longer‐term scenario the United States could face if spending and debt continue growing unabated.Current debt limit discussions are indicative of the myopia that characterizes the federal budget process. A d...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 22, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Romina Boccia Source Type: blogs
Hearing Remarks: Protecting American Families from Higher Taxes
Adam N. MichelI recently testified for the Senate Budget Committee on the topic of taxes, economic growth, and budget deficits.You can read my full written testimonyhere, and watch the hearinghere. Below is a lightly edited version of the three main points I emphasized in my oral remarks.First, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a success. Second, tax cuts did not cause the federal deficit. And third, the topic of this hearing is really about the appropriate size and scope of government—a topic on which reasonable people can disagree. However, if Congress decides that the current trajectory of federal spending does ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 18, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Adam N. Michel Source Type: blogs
Title 42 Failed. It Should Not Be Extended in Any Form.
David J. BierWith thesunsetting of the public health emergency this week, Border Patrol will lose its ability to expel some immigrants at the border under Title 42. Under Title 42, Border Patrol could quickly remove someone from the United States, sending them back to Mexico or, in some cases, their home country without allowing them the ability to request asylum in the United States. President Biden ’s plan to replace Title 42 involves more legal immigration andan asylum ban for those who cross illegally paired with deportations to Mexico for eight nationalities.Title 42 has failed on its own terms. Crossings have incre...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 10, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Title 42 Failed. It Should Not Be Extended in Any Form
David J. BierWith thesunsetting of the public health emergency this week, Border Patrol will lose its ability to expel some immigrants at the border under Title 42. Under Title 42, Border Patrol could quickly remove someone from the United States, sending them back to Mexico or, in some cases, their home country without allowing them the ability to request asylum in the United States. President Biden ’s plan to replace Title 42 involves more legal immigration andan asylum ban for those who cross illegally paired with deportations to Mexico for eight nationalities.Title 42 has failed on its own terms. Crossings have incre...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 10, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Rising Prices and Staffing Shortages: The Need for a Positive Patient Experience in Healthcare
The following is a guest article by Branden Neish, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Weave
In the midst of a global pandemic and a looming economic recession, the healthcare industry has faced a multitude of challenges. Staffing shortages have put a strain on healthcare practitioners, leading to increased workloads and longer hours. As a result, patient care has suffered, with a recent study conducted by Weave revealing that nearly two in three patients have felt rushed, not heard, or not paid attention to by their healthcare provider in the last 12 months. This trend is a cause for concern as the patient experienc...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - May 4, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Ambulatory Communication and Patient Experience Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System All-in-One Software All-In-One Technology Branden Neish Economic Recession Improving Patient Experience Online Self-Scheduling Patient Dissatisfacti Source Type: blogs
World Press Freedom Day: The Global Free Speech Recession Continues
Ian V ásquezToday is the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day and,as theWashington Post points out, “there seems little to celebrate.” Indeed, press freedom has been on a years‐long decline around the world and the situation is getting worse. The number of journalists imprisoned hit a record last yearaccording to the Committee to Protect Journalists and in their annual survey of press freedom,Reporters Without Borders finds that “the environment for journalism is ‘bad’ in seven out of ten countries, and satisfactory in only three out of ten.”Our findingsin theHuman Freedom Index also document the...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 3, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Ian V ásquez Source Type: blogs
The New Deal and Recovery, Part 27: Deposit Insurance
ConclusionPart 27: Deposit Insurance_____________________[1] To this list we might add a fourth item, noted by Golembe in a subsequentinterview, to wit: that the deposit " insurance " provided for by the 1933 Banking Act wasn ' t really insurance at all. Unlike genuine insurance policies, it covers depositors for losses regardless of whether the losses were due to recklessness on their or their banks ' part. And unlike genuine insurance funds, the FDIC ' s insurance " fund " is an accounting fiction, the truth being that the " premiums " it collects from banks go into the federal government ' s general coffers. " The gover...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 28, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: George Selgin Source Type: blogs
The New Deal and Recovery, Part 26: The RFC, Conclusion
Conclusion___________________________[1] That the CCC did not contribute to recovery isn ' t very surprising, given that its particular aim, like that of its Hoover-era predecessor, the Federal Farm Board, and of New Deal farm policies generally, was not so much promoting growth in national income as assuring U.S. farmers their " fair share " of it. Hence Henry Wallace ' s statement, in his last (1940)annual report as Secretary of the Treasury, that " Even full domestic employment. . .would not remove the need " for those programs, and the programs ' persistence long after the depression ended. Yet the " fair share " goal ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 24, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: George Selgin Source Type: blogs
The New Deal and Recovery, Part 25: The RFC, Continued
George Selgin(This is the second installment of a three-part essay. The first part ishere.)Big Engines that Couldn ' tAlthough Hoover ' s Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was " more largely a banker ' s loan bank than anything else " (Ebersole 1933, 477), financial institutions were never the only firms eligible for its support. Railroads were an important exception from the start, though they were so mainly because financial institutions, commercial banks, and insurance companies especially, were railroads ' main investors. Thanks to New York and other state regulatory authorities ' inclusion of many railroad bond...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 20, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: George Selgin Source Type: blogs
