When Swedish health care "professionals" aren't out trying to score hot nurses, they're apparently turning away fellow citizens who've suffered broken necks:"A man from northern Sweden was sent home from his local clinic with a handful of painkillers ... Every time he moved or sat up his vertebral column moved three centimetres,...
From the lips of Ms Shecantbeserious:"The private [health insurance] market is in a death spiral"D'unh!For someone like Mme Secretary this is, of course, a feature, not a bug.But it's what happens when you impose rate controls, mandate coverage for non-medically necessary items, give away health insurance to irresponsible folks,...
An offshoot of Obamaneycrap is the battle over how much regulation can be imposed on insurance carriers that operate in a free market. One of the side battles addresses premium rate increases.We have long maintained that government intervention and price oversight is unnecessary in a competitive market. Health insurance premiums...
Chock up another one for our prescience. Some 3 1/2 years ago, we discussed the possibility that young boys would also be given this tried-but-untrue panacea. Now comes word that "the American Academy of Pediatrics is fully recommending that boys get the shots as well."And why is that?Well, follow the money:"The new policy...
Not sure what to make of this:"The cost of providing health care insurance to the hedge fund community is rising at a slower rate for the first time in years ... insurance carriers raised their rates between 2% and 8%, on average, for hedge fund managers and their employees in 2011. This represents a marked improvement from the 6% to 18% rate hikes ... last year’s survey of 2010 rates."What is there...
Launched last summer, a $77 million computer system to stop Medicare fraud before it happens had prevented just one suspicious payment by Christmas. That saved taxpayers exactly $7,591.Lawmakers had expected the system to finally allow Medicare to stanch a $60-billion-a-year fraud hemorrhage. Now they’re worried that cautious...
Time to break out that new standard, Days of Wine and Rosemary. Last week, we reported on the newest study touting the benefits of an occasional libation. Today, we learn that one of my favorite herbs has similarly beneficial effects on one's intelligence:"Now researchers have used essential plant oils to see how much rosemary...
Years ago there was a margarine commercial with the tag line "It isn't nice to fool Mother Nature." Comes now Obamacare that wants to tell everyone, regardless of religious persuasion, that they must pay for contraceptives by way of their health insurance plan.The big push back so far has been the Catholic church, but it seems other groups including Protestants, Jews and even Muslims have tossed their...
Heh:"As many as 75,000 workers throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky – about 12 percent of those who have insurance through their job – don’t have coverage for contraceptives."[Hat Tip: FoIB Holly...
One of the good things about Obamacare, perhaps the only good thing, is PCIP. The Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, should be a god-send for those that are too sick to qualify medically for health insurance in the open market.Only a very small percentage of individuals truly cannot qualify for health insurance at any given...
The folks at KHN give us a bit of clarification on what is, and what isn't preventive contraception.1) Are male-based contraceptive methods, such as vasectomies or condoms, covered by the rule?An HHS official said on Friday that women’s preventive services guidelines apply to women only.Sounds like someone is playing the gender...
It appears Aetna is caving to Obamacare. In a recent conference meeting, Aetna CEO Bertolini declared health insurance carriers to be extinct.Bertolini said an amalgamation of regulatory, demographic and economic factors were driving this change. The Affordable Care Act in particular, with its ban on medical underwriting, had made the traditional health insurance business model untenable in the long...
While we've often discussed the (so-called) Doc Fix, Medicaid is also facing severe budgetary problems. To address these, legislators in the Evergreen State recently passed a bill that would cut off coverage for non-emergency ER visits:"Starting April 1, Medicaid will no longer pay for [unneeded ER] visits, even when patients or parents have reason to believe they're having an emergency."On the one...
A not so funny cartoon about Obamacare. Apparently economists have side line jobs as fiction writers. Let's look at some of the fantasy in this cartoon.The cartoonist claims the current system is unfair without explaining why. Every form of insurance charges a premium based on risk factors. If health insurance is unfair, then so is life insurance, home owners insurance,...
A Cayce man has been charged with insurance fraud after another man’s hand was chopped off.Thirty-four-year-old Gerald B. Hardin faces six charges, including mail fraud for a 2008 incident in Sumter County where a man’s had was cut off with a pole saw.Federal indictments state that Hardin and another person used a saw to intentionally cut off the hand of a third person in an insurance fraud scheme....
Class warfare now includes Obamacare. Michael Cannon at Cato posits about Mitt Romney's wealth and wonders if he has health insurance.His assumption is, with all Romney's millions does he really need to buy health insurance.While Mitt and I have not had a teachable moment over a beer, I feel reasonably comfortable in saying...
As Henry says, we get letters, or in this case, comments.One of our regular readers offered his views of Obamacare and what has been accomplished to date. Below are his observations . . . as well as ours.So let’s turn to the real story of the low costs of the first year of the ACA and what has occurred while cost increase have mitigated:1) 2.5 million young Americans are now covered on their parents...
All things in moderation, of course, but more good news for the occasional imbiber. First:"Alcohol is one of the only dietary practices that increases the 'good' high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and lowers the 'bad' low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, as well as lowers the risk of blood clots."And no, we don't...
Just what the administration has been telling us we need - a new insurance company.Watch the new company cut the cost of medical care. Probably by 25% or more...
Full disclosure: I can't grow a beard to save my life. I don't really mind, because lately, what does come in is decidedly more salt than pepper. But still.I bring this up because of a grave and serious injustice that's still under the radar: full coverage for men's facial grooming products.The prestigious American Mustache...
The folks over at KFF came up with this nifty map showing who will benefit the most (read as pick the pocket of the taxpayers for the highest subsidies) from Obamneycrap.Not only is it a cool graphic, you can also use this link to find out what percent of your neighbors will be recipients of the rob the rich to give to the...
Perhaps so:"Prime Minister David Cameron ... is working to partially privatize the NHS, beginning a massive outsourcing of medical services to private health care providers throughout the U.K."The Much Vaunted National Health Service has a long and storied history of rationing care and and driving Brits to seek medical attention...
