A Day Old and Deep in Debt
Kevin Clark
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
a minute ago
- Axios
GOP tax-spending bill sets path for direct primary care boost
Providers of "direct primary care" who charge patients a monthly fee for unlimited visits and workups are poised to become big winners from the new Republican tax-and-spending law. Why it matters: The law for the first time allows patients to tap their health savings accounts for the concierge-like primary care arrangements, and lets employers extend both benefits, in the belief they're more efficient than the traditional fee-for-service system. The change aligns with a Project 2025 goal to promote more personalized and flexible direct primary care, and a GOP penchant for expanding the use of high-deductible health plans and their tax-advantaged savings accounts. The legislation"takes an impediment out of the way" for employers who want to improve their employees' primary care, said Jim Winkler, chief strategy officer for the Business Group on Health. "It certainly is helpful at a time when employers are very interested in that space." Driving the news: Starting next year, people who have a high-deductible plan and direct primary care membership through their workplace can contribute to an HSA. The ability to invest pre-tax dollars and spend them later on eligible health care expenses can lessen the burden of a large insurance deductible. About 21% of U.S. workers with employer-sponsored health insurance were enrolled in HSA-eligible high-deductible plans in 2024, according to KFF. Until now, the tax code disqualified people who use concierge care from contributing to an HSA. Employers are among those who advocated for the change, which had some bipartisan support, Winkler said. The bill also makes direct primary care membership fees an allowable HSA expense for people who don't get a subscription through their employer. The change opens the direct primary care market to more employers, said Rebecca Springer, director of market development at health care investment bank Bailey and Co. The share of employers offering direct primary care subscriptions grew a staggering 800% between 2017 and 2022, according to a report from direct care software platform Hint Health. Still, a relatively small number of employers offer direct primary care benefits. "It's certainly a tailwind for direct primary care," she added. Yes, but: There are still underlying challenges, tempering expectations of a big boost for the sector, she noted. Direct primary care is still a relatively small segment of health care, and it can be difficult to scale. It's also not very integrated with the broader health system. "What makes a direct primary care model really good for a patient is that they get to spend more time with the physician," Winkler said. Doctors also like the smaller patient loads. "Finding more primary care physicians — and we have a scarcity of that in our country — will be a challenge as this model grows," he said. "It's true of any version of advanced primary care that's rooted in how that physician spend more time with the patient." What we're watching: Whether more physicians start or join concierge care practices going forward. Many have been interested but hesitant to make the leap because until now, there hasn't been a clear financial incentive to help patients afford the services, which can cost up to $150 per month — on top of insurance premiums and specialist copays — for an individual under the new law, said Shawn Martin, CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians. "Now that that exists, I think you'll see a lot more interest in the model," he said. AAFP's 2024 survey of doctors providing direct primary care found that 94% were satisfied with their overall practice, compared with 57% of doctors not practicing direct primary care.
Bloomberg
2 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
When Does Capitalism Become Predatory?
When's the last time you had an interaction with a company that made you question your sanity? Mine was with a long-term care insurance provider. My parents, both in their 80s, have paid for their policy for decades, so when my dad told me he'd been struggling — unsuccessfully — to submit a claim, I figured I could easily resolve the problem. Ha. Instead, I found myself tangled in a Kafkaesque bureaucracy that was clearly designed to maximize a customer's frustration until they give up. Communications went into the void. Forms were repeatedly lost or rejected for absurd reasons — and even when the company allowed it had received them, it was months before they were accepted, much less processed.
CBS News
2 minutes ago
- CBS News
Florida execution set for today would set record for most executions there in single year, 9
Starke, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of killing his wife and two children with a machete in 1994 is set for execution Thursday, which would be the ninth death sentence carried out in 2025 to set a new state record for a single year. A 10th execution is scheduled for Aug. 19 and an 11th on Aug. 28. A death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis directs that 60-year-old Edward Zakrzewski be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison near Starke. Zakrzewski's final appeal for a stay was rejected Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court. The highest previous annual total of recent Florida executions is eight in 2014, since the death penalty was restored in 1976 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each. Zakrzewski, an Air Force veteran, was sentenced to die for the 1994 slayings of his 34-year-old wife, Sylvia, and their children Edward, 7, and 5-year-old Anna, at their home in Okaloosa County in the Panhandle. Trial testimony showed he committed the killings after his wife sought a divorce and he had told others he would kill his family rather than allow that. Sylvia was attacked first with a crowbar and strangled with a rope, testimony shows. Both children were killed with the machete, and Sylvia was also struck with the blade when Zakrzewski thought she had survived the previous assault. Opponents of the execution point to Zakrzewski's military service and the fact that a jury voted 7-5 to recommend his execution, barely a majority of the panel. He couldn't be executed with such a split jury vote under current state law. The trial judge imposed three death sentences on Zakrzewski. The Action Network, which organized an anti-execution petition, asked people to call DeSantis' office and read a prepared script urging a stay of execution for Zakrzewski. "Florida does not need the death penalty to be safe. This execution will not make us safer, it will simply add another act of violence to an already tragic story. Justice does not require death," the script reads in part. Zakrzewski's lawyers have filed numerous appeals over the years, all of which have been rejected. Twenty-six men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and 11 other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. Florida was also the last state to execute someone, when Michael Bernard Bell died by lethal injection on July 15. DeSantis also signed a warrant for the 10th execution this year for Kayle Bates, who abducted a woman from an insurance office and killed her more than four decades ago. Wednesday night, DeSantis issued a death warrant for Curtis Windom, 59, convicted of killing three people in the Orlando area in 1992. His execution is scheduled for Aug. 28. Florida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
