We live in a mixed community. I think we are the oldest couple in the area. We did not want to go to an older adult-type of setting. This community is bad enough with its HOA. On one side we have a young couple with a baby. They come to our house with their baby […]
It has been a while since I have commented on anything ACA related. This popped up in my in-box. I follow Andrew Sprung for the technical side of it. xpostfactoid’s Andrew and Charles Gaba at ACASignups are my go-to people on ACA healthcare and healthcare. To answer this question . . . how can it […]
One motivation to getting my genome sequenced was to see whether I had known risk alleles for dementia (spoiler alert: I don’t). My dad was diagnosed with frontotemporal lobe dementia a few years before he died. His brain biopsy after death returned a diagnosis of Alzheimers. He might have had both. One of the known […]
Several years ago, I got my genome sequenced and obtained my variant call files, the tabulation of all differences between my gene sequences and the annotated human genome. Although my primary care physician was aware, I didn’t require his intermediation to obtain or interpret my genomics data. How I might react to adverse information was […]
by Jasper Craven Task & Purpose In mid-April, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, and Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, sent a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough demanding to know why the agency was wounding itself. Specifically, they worried about a series of seemingly contradictory eligibility and staffing policies. In […]
by Hayden Rooke-Ley, Soleil Shah, and Erin C. Fuse Brown New England Journal of Medicine Introduction The government will pay roughly $500 billion to insurance companies in 2024 to administer the Medicare Advantage program, including 23% more per beneficiary than it spends on traditional Medicare . . . equivalent to an extra $88 billion per year. Medicare Advantage plans cost […]
As a subject in the Moderna phase III COVID vaccine trial, I wasn’t told whether I’d get the vaccine or a placebo. Indeed, neither my nurse nor the doctor overseeing the trial knew which subjects got which. It was a double-blind trial. 12 hours after the second jab, I started experiencing a headache, muscle and […]
Continuing the ongoing implementation of President Biden’s prescription drug pricing law called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final part one guidance for the new Medicare Prescription Payment Plan. Today’s guidance helps ensure that Medicare Part D plan sponsors can successfully implement the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan and effectively […]
by David Wainer WSJ, June 1, 2024 America’s healthcare insurers do not say this openly. It is not a secret that many of them would like to be a little more like United Health Group UNH 4.69% increase; green up pointing triangle. Just as Amazon is the e-commerce industry’s 800-pound gorilla, UnitedHealth has built a sprawling health services company. It shows […]
by Merrill Goozner GoozNews Government prognosticators once again foresee rising health care costs amid falling insurance coverage. Is this an election prediction? Each mid-year, economists and actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offer their predictions for the direction of health care spending over the next decade. This year they projected health care’s share of […]