Gwyneth Paltrow: Actress, Author, and Founder/CCO of goop.com

Gwyneth Paltrow has transitioned to a career in business from acting, and she seems thrilled.

I (basically) walked away from a career where people kissed my ass to being grilled by a VC or my board. I used to worry about myself and myself alone, and now I am responsible for the livelihoods of 50+ people. These days I spend every waking hour trying to execute on a strategy I created with my team to make goop the number one global lifestyle brand (a girl can dream), while trying to get us to profitability before my series B runs out. All while being as professionally fulfilled and happy as I have ever been in my life. More so.

Best of luck.

Here.

 

Jackson Health System to Offer Prices for Services

Finally! A health facility that will provide price quotes in advance of a procedure for healthcare services at their facilities. Jackson Health System has facilities located in the Miami, FL area. Link to quote page here. Their reason:

More and more insurance plans require out-of-pocket spending by the patient. Whether you have a deductible or coinsurance – or if you’re searching for healthcare services without insurance – Jackson wants to help you understand what you’ll pay for care. Today, patients do not have consistent access to quality, price, and service information when they are choosing a healthcare provider or considering treatment options. This price transparency service enables patients to make more informed choices.

Prices for medical services can vary significantly, even for the exact same procedure in the same area, with the same equipment. Jackson will empower you with information to make an informed decision about your care. Unlike traditional price estimators, which rely on averages, our service checks patients’ actual insurance information to provide highly accurate quotes based on their insurance plan design, deductibles, coinsurance, and more. This information will also be useful to patients who don’t have health insurance and want to research cash prices.

These quotes are for hospital fees only. Professional fees from doctors are a separate charge.

But still, its a step in the right direction towards price transparency that we, as consumers, enjoy with most other products and services we buy.

 

Mylan’s EpiPen Injector for Epinephrine

Mrs. Clinton Tweeted out her displeasure about the price of this medical device. Here’s my take.

The EpiPen device has the high price, not the medication. Epinephrine has been around for more than 100 years and is easy to produce.

The FDA has a complicated and ambiguous process for approval of the EpiPen, and that is is inhibiting competition. Sanofi withdrew an EpiPen after 26 cases in which it delivered an inaccurate dose. In February the FDA rejected Teva’s generic EpiPen application. In June the FDA required Adamis to expand trials and reliability studies for *another* firm’s auto-injector.

The price of a product or service carries valuable information about the security.

In this case the higher price for EpiPen carries information about the relative scarcity of it. In general, high prices draws in producers but in this case the producers of other EpiPens such as Sanofi and Teva are unable to enter the market because of the FDA’s approval process.

It isn’t something nefarious by Mylan’s employees but the absence of competition that is not spurring them to change anything.

If Mrs Clinton, wanted to help she should start a program with the Clinton Foundation to buy EpiPens from Mylan and distribute them. And as President, she could commit to streamline the approval process at the FDA. She’d be a hero to many families and reform a government agency. But so far, her campaign took the nasty, authoritarian, exploitative role.

 

 

A test post to link to a USB missile launcher on Amazon

 

Payroll Tax Increase of 2013

USA Today:

A payroll tax increase of 2 percentage points has hit workers who have received their first paychecks of the year, and has many determining how they will cut back in 2013.

There are two reasons for this increase: 1) Keynesian economic theory says tax cuts should be timely, temporary, and targeted. These tax cuts lasted two years so that makes them temporary; 2) politicians want the tax revenue to put into the virtual Social Security Trust Fund.

 

U.S. Appeals Court in Atlanta, GA Says Obamacare Unconstitutional

The opinion, jointly written by judges Joel Dubina and Frank Hull, said Congress had broad power to deal with the problems of the uninsured, “but what Congress cannot do…is mandate that individuals enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die.”

Here.

Why don’t we have this problem with all the other products and services we buy on a regular basis? Answer: because the government is involved in health insurance, paying for medical products and services, and regulating what medical products and services we can and cannot buy.

Conservatives, Republicans, independents, and Tea Party: even if Obamacare is ultimately repealed, the U.S. will still have government-run, socialized medicine.  Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance through employers are all government-dictated medical care.  They have to be reformed in order to ensure we enjoy medical care the same way we do other products and services.

 

New Home Sales

The government should stop trying to artificially goose new home sales because that will just prolong the housing problem. There are too many homes on most local markets right now and building new homes will increase supply and depress home prices. Prices in the local markets have to decline enough to entice buyers to buy homes. Homeowners underwater — their mortgage is more than the price of their home — will be hurt even more by more home building.

Here.