What are the differences between Single Payer, Medicare for All and Universal Coverage? Universal coverage is merely a system where everyone is covered. Obamacare was supposed to be universal coverage because it initially included an individual mandate. Medicare is a type of universal coverage for seniors. Medicare for All would expand eligibility down from age 65 to 0. Medicare for All would require the federal government to expand the program, with states playing a supporting role. It would not necessarily be the same program that exists today, except in name.
Friday Links – 15 May 2026
- Sweden: Today, nearly half of primary healthcare clinics are privately owned, many by private-equity firms. One in three public high schools is privately run, up from 20% in 2011.
- As of last year, state-owned or “mixed-ownership” enterprises account for about 60 percent of China’s largest companies.
- More cancer patients are taking ivermectin.
- Benefits of eating eggs.
- Young adults and older workers are dropping out of the labor market. What are they doing instead?
Where Do Consumers Really Get Health Information?
The Pew Charitable Trust says I’ve been wrong all these years. I’ve written for 25 years that Americans increasingly get their health information from the Internet. Furthermore, a few minutes spent surfing the Web for health information can educate patients far more than their physicians would ever have time to explain. In a new Pew survey of where people get their health information, the Internet trails health care providers.
Thursday Links – 14 May 2026
- Should health AI programs be required to obtain a license to practice medicine?
- Eliminating the gas tax may not lower the price of gasoline.
- Jeffrey Singer: The “right to try” exists mainly on paper.
- Early evidence on smartphone bans: “no clear evidence that the school ban policy reduced screen time or improved psychological wellbeing.”
- Are second opinions needed in dentistry? (NYT)