Category: Interesting Links

Americans on Pet Spending, and Other Links

Americans spent approximately $61.4 billion in 2011 on about 218 million pets, not counting several million fish. HT: Timothy Taylor.

Miami hospital tells what buyers actually pay. HT: Sarah Kliff.

Unions not happy with health care reform law.

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

42,173 Canadians received medical treatment outside of the country in 2012.

The cost of government regulation: $14,768 per household.

A class action suit claims the IRS improperly seized 60 million medical records of 10 million people.

Health IT to Raise Costs, and Other Links

73% of doctors: Health IT will raise quality; 71%: it will also raise costs.

Fidelity: A 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $220,000 on average to cover medical expenses.

The highest paid public employee in your state is… [HT: Jason Shafrin]

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Things don’t go as well when the wife earns more than the husband.

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

The costliest hospital in the nation is in New Jersey and it was bankrupt only a few years ago.

The IRS has requested funding for 1,954 full-time equivalent employees for its Affordable Care Act office in 2014.

Salt Consumption Isn’t So Bad After All, and Other Links

Panel: there’s nothing wrong with salt.

Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity. HT: Tyler Cowen.

25 million employees are working in industries where employers are most likely to drop their health insurance.

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

How many pages of ObamaCare regulations are there? 13,000? 20,000? 33,000?

Five months after primary care doctors who treat Medicaid patients were supposed get a big pay raise, most physicians have yet to see it.

In Washington, D.C., smoking is a pre-existing condition: henceforth insurers shall be forbidden by law to charge smokers higher rates than non-smokers.

James Bovard: IRS targeting of political opponents is normal in U.S. history.

U.S. News vs. Comparion Hospital Rankings, and Other Links

Study challenges U.S. News ranking of U.S. hospitals.

Does austerity cause suicides?

What the new ObamaCare tax form is likely to look like.

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Enroll America, the group that is supposed to be leading the charge to get people insured, will not be enrolling anyone.

Nearly one-third of death certificates are wrong.

Kroger’s would need to spend $20 million to come into compliance with the new calorie-posting regulations.

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Does the IRS have an “enemies list”?

The new, aggressive pathogens in China and Saudi Arabia may or may not carve a deadly path to the West; but sooner or later, you can be sure, one will.

41% of small businesses are postponing hiring because of ObamaCare law; only 9% think the law will be good for them.

The UN wants us to eat more insects.

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

2.3 million workers could see their hours reduced because of ObamaCare.

Con artists posing as (ObamaCare) navigators are engaged in identity theft. HT: InsureBlog.

NYC school kitchen managers called on the carpet for ordering butter. (It’s now a banned food item.)

Is President Obama getting ready to go after your 401(k) account?