News
National Journal | GAO Report Finds Medicare Pays For Prescription Drug Abuse
Medicare may be helping thousands of patients abuse painkillers by “doctor-shopping” to get multiple prescriptions, the Government Accountability Office reports, as a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee looks into the issue on Tuesday.
National Journal | BlueCross BlueShield Association Wants Faster Health Reform
One of the nation’s largest health insurance plans wants the federal government to move faster when it comes to changing how Americans pay for health care, and released a plan Tuesday that shows how to do it -- by adopting pilot programs that are working.
Blogs
Atlantic: Megan McArdle | Confronting the Cost of Health Care
One of the major factors contributing to the general feeling that people aren't as well off as they used to be is that they are consuming more and more of their income as health benefits.
Incidental Economist | Back to the future: today’s 1990s-like health spending
Since 2004, we’ve been in an era of remarkably low health spending growth. Relative to the prior period (1993-2004), the only type of spending that has grown faster since 2004 is for hospital services, but still at a rate low compared to periods before 1993.
Volokh Conspiracy | Healthier and Wealthier
For many years, it’s been clear that there is a positive correlation between health and wealth, but it was most commonly thought that wealth creates health. While it is certainly true that the rich can afford to take better care of themselves, it is now known that health also begets wealth.
