2060 is getting great reviews on Amazon. Order 2060 here. For those of you who haven’t purchased 2060, I present Chapter 1. July 12, 2060 Willis Smith walked towards the front doors of the Prairie Oaks nursing home as he had for the umpteenth time in the last six months. This...
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CMS just announced that U.S. healthcare spending increased 4.6% in 2019 to $3.8 trillion, which accounted for 17.7% of the GDP. In contrast, the general inflation rate in 2019 was approximately 1.8%.  Of course, this was all before coronavirus hit. Before we get to 2020, these numbers say in a very...
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I can’t make up this stuff. I am on several listservs that publish medical news items. I understand that there are probably several staffers that contribute to the daily blasts, not knowing what the others are doing. But I assume there is still some sort of editor that makes sure the...
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I have written before about predictions of the actual costs of Obamacare and the probable death spiral of increasing costs and decreasing participants. Several recent reports have brought more clarity to the cost realities. Recently regulators across the country approved rate hike requests by Obamacare insurance companies even greater than they...
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I’ve complained about CMS/Medicare many times in previous posts, but this time they deserve praise. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell floated a proposal to allow Medicare to change how it pays for cancer drugs. According to an aritcle in the New York Times, ALL members of the Senate Finance Committee signed a letter...
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I’ve written many times about how the march of healthcare hyperinflation continues apace, meaning that the inflation rate for healthcare and health insurance continues to be greater than the general inflation rate (most recent post on the topic by me). Another report sheds more light on how this is affecting all Americans...
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Let’s start with some supposed good news. The headline recently read Jobless rate is lowest in more than 7 years. It’s officially at 5.1%, compared to 10% in 2009. But dig deeper. If people who can only get part time work and other people on the fringes of the job market are...
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According to the Milliman Medical Index, the average health insurance premium for employees choosing a PPO family plan was $15,069 in 2010. The employers contributed $10,744 and the employees $4,325. Add in the out-of-pocket expenses for employees, $3,005, and that brings the total annual family healthcare bill to $18,074. This total...
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