Monday, December 11, 2017

Top O'The Week Linkfest

■ A few months ago, we noted that, far from elevating health care results among those most needy, "the weight of the scientific evidence is that Medicaid expansion has not saved lives."

Now, FoIB Holly R offers more proof that Medicaid over-promises and under-delivers:

"[F]or patients with other public [i.e., Medicaid] or no insurance, survival was often stubbornly unchanged, or, in some cancers, declining."

Ooops.

■ A slight correction (well, clarification) for our item last week on Wells Fargo's little insurance fraud fiasco. From the original article, we understood this to mean home (and perhaps auto) policies; thanks to FoIB Allison Bell, we learn that at least some of these appear to have been life insurance plans:

"California insurance regulators say problems with unauthorized product sales at Wells Fargo bank branches may have affected some sales of term life insurance."

Yikes.

■ And about that ObamaTax cost curve; back in September we noted that:

"Out-of-pocket costs for specialty drugs under the Affordable Care Act increased 16 percent from 2016 to 2017."

Ouch.

But wait, there's more:

"U.S. health care spending increased to $3.3 trillion in 2016, with out-of-pocket health care costs borne directly by consumers rising 3.9 percent — the fastest rate of growth since 2007."

#ACAWinning!

[Hat Tip: Jason]
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