Category: Health Care
-
Let the Young Be Stupid. Focus on the Outbreaks
by Carol J. Bova Governor Ralph Northam is cracking down on a surge in COVID-19 cases in Hampton Roads by limiting the serving of alcohol in the region. He’s attacking the wrong problem. You canโt fix stupid, and you canโt make young people listen to advice. Irresponsible youthful behavior will spread the COVID-19 virus, but…
-
How Hospital Monopolies Extract their Pound of Flesh
by James A. Bacon The average cost of family coverage in a private health insurance plan in Virginia ran more than $26,300 in 2017, according to data from the Commonwealth Fund. That number includes the employer share of the insurance premiums, the employee’s share, and out-of-pocket costs. If you want to understand why middle-class standards…
-
Pontificating about Health Care
๏ปฟ In a webcast produced by YourFreedomHub, I explain the political economy of healthcare in Virginia. Long-time readers of Jim Sherlock’s columns and my columns on this topic will find much familiar material. The value in watching the presentation is seeing many strands pulled together in a coherent narrative. Also, I do provide some evidence…
-
Common Sense and Coronavirus in Virginia
by DJ Rippert Stepping back. Over the past five months there has been an unending flood of information, guesses, misinformation and politicized ramblings about COVID-19.ย Various factions put forth their experts and cherry picked data to support their agendas. It’s time to step back and synthesize all that has been written into a set of…
-
Check out My Political-Economy-of-Healthcare Webinar
I’ll be talking about the political economy of healthcare in Virginia 7:00 p.m. Wednesday (tomorrow) in a webinar hosted by Your Freedom Hub. Bacon’s Rebellion readers recalling the posts that Jim Sherlock and I have written about the power of hospital cartels will find the subject matter familiar. But I’ll be previewing some new data…
-
How Employers Must Prevent COVID, Or Else
By Steve Haner The first thing every employer in Virginia needs to understand about the stateโs new COVID-19 temporary workplace standard (here) is it is universal. It applies to every workplace, public and private, for-profit and non-profit, with 10,000 workers or two. The rules are the same, โone size fits all,โ without regard to the…
-
More Fallout from the COVID Shutdown
by James A. Bacon A least 5.4 million Americans lost their medical insurance when they lost their jobs to the COVID-19 epidemic between February and May, says Attorney General Mark R. Herring in a press release issued today. In Virginia, he adds, it is estimated that 14% of adults lack health insurance. Nine hundred thousand…
-
No More Shutdowns Without Detailed Data
by Kerry Dougherty Here we go.ย Again. California Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down much of his stateโs economy yesterday. He closed indoor dining, churches, (theyโre always the first to go), hair salons, barbershops, wineries, fitness centers, etc. Iโm sure itโs just coincidental that this happened shortly before the Golden Stateโs numbers began to climb last month:…
-
VCU Study Finds 30,000 “Spillover” Deaths from COVID-19 Epidemic
๏ปฟ by James A. Bacon In March and April this year, the COVID-19 epidemic resulted in approximately 87,000 more deaths in the United States than the average for those months, concludes a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. About 65% were directly attributable to the virus. The other 35% was…
-
Virginia COVID Cases Up, Deaths Down
by Kerry Dougherty Welcome to Day 121 of 15 Days to Slow the Spread. Seems like just yesterday that we watched, aghast, as Italyโs hospitals collapsed under the weight of those sick and dying from COVID-19. It was late February. If we didnโt act we faced the same fate, experts said. And so, in mid-March,…
-
Inequity Accounting for Hispanic COVID-19 Cases
by Carol J. Bova Last week Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William, wrote a letter to Governor Ralph Northam decrying the high rate of COVID-19 infection in Virginia’s Hispanic population. She blamed “longstanding and systemic factors, such as disparate access to information, testing, and treatment.” Jim Bacon responded that Virginia Department of Health (VDH) data…
-
Virginia Hospitals Rank High Nationally (They Are Not the Ones You Would Assume!)
By Dick Hall-Sizemore In a new national ranking of hospitals, two Virginia hospitals are included in the Top 20 Hospitals in the country. Furthermore, the Commonwealthโs two major teaching hospitals are in the list of the 50 best teaching hospitals. Finally, one Virginia hospital was one of the 100 best safety net hospitals. The two…
-
Are Hispanics Victims of “Inequities” in COVID-19 Epidemic?
by James A. Bacon Hispanics make up 9% of Virginia’s population but 43% of the state’s COVID-19 cases. So, it seems a not-unreasonable thing for Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William, a candidate for governor, to call upon Governor Ralph Northam to increase funding for outreach over Spanish-language media to build public awareness about the…
-
State Board of Health Regulations are Fundamentally Flawed
by James C. Sherlock The Northam administration has a robust program for regulation review. It is time to use it to totally overhaul Virginiaโs healthcare regulations. Healthcare facilities and providers in Virginia are subject to dueling regulations — one set for state licensure and another for Medicare/Medicaid certification. Virginiaโs regulations in these cases are not…
-
The COVID Surge — Virginia Hangs Tight
by Verhaal Kenner As of July 1st, Virginia is now in โPhase IIIโ reopening as our stateโs COVID cases seem to be almost holding mostly steady despite record daily infections in a few hot spots such as Hampton Roads. Phase III means the reopening of non-essential retail and restaurants (with six-foot table spacing). The completeย …