- RFK Jr may be right about the dangers of antidepressants. (NYT)
- Food Stamp recipients: A mere 16% of able-bodied adults work 20 hours a week or more.
- “In sickness and in health” may not come true if the wife gets sick.
- Nearly 40% of the total population of New York and California is now on Medicaid.
- 90% of the top 30 brand-name drugs sold in the US are manufactured abroad.
- Middle incomes have not been stagnant: US median disposable income (including transfers) is the highest in the world.
Author: John C. Goodman
Thursday Links
- As enrollment declines (because of unwinding form Covid levels) the fall in prescriptions paid for by Medicaid or CHIP were mostly offset by an increase in commercial-paid prescriptions.
- Welfare spending has no effect on the poverty rate.
- Essay: bad government policies are the reason for almost all of our health care system failures. (Statnews)
- Social Security crisis in pictures.
- Krugman doubles down on an old and controversial claim: sweatshops in less developed countries are better than the alternative.
Wednesday Links
- Study: Women’s brains age more slowly than men’s.
- GLP-1 drugs work against conditions like Alzheimer’s, osteoarthritis, and certain cancers. Are they anti-aging drugs as well?
- To be cost effective, Nordisk’s Wegovy would need to be cut by over 80 percent and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound would need to fall by nearly a third.
- Is America ignoring the best treatment for opioid addiction?
- Medicaid physician fees are approximately 71 percent of Medicare physician fees in 2024, including 69 percent for office visits, 68 percent for hospital and emergency department visits, 87 percent for obstetric care, and 79 percent for other services under our updated approach.
Tuesday Links
- Is it better to eat breakfast or skip it? The studies are mixed. (WSJ)
- 71% of adults say they are trying to consume more protein.
- Research suggests that at least 60 percent of strokes, 40 percent of dementia cases and 35 percent of late-life depression cases could be prevented or slowed by controlling risk factors.
- Before affirmative action and civil rights: (WSJ)
In 1940 nearly 90% of black families lived in poverty. By 1960 the share had fallen to less than half. Census data show that during this period blacks increased their years of schooling at a faster pace than whites, that the share of blacks attending college doubled, and that the proportion of blacks entering skilled professions more than doubled.