- Direct primary care for everyone: A $2,000 voucher and 600 patients per doctor.
- A new FDA rule: In testing for new drugs, companies no longer have to ignore what they already know.
- Why the drop in fentanyl deaths? A fentanyl “drought,” which may have its causes in China.
- America is experiencing a “once-in-a-lifetime improvement in public safety despite a police-staffing crisis.”
- Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in healthcare top the 2026 list of the most significant health technology hazards.
Obamacare Proponents Leery of Lower Price Health Plans… and Competition
The Kaiser Family Foundation is reporting on the loss of ACA enhanced subsidies and the problems many families face keeping coverage. The article, As Insurance Prices Rise, Families Puzzle Over Options is a series of anecdotes about families who face unaffordable “Affordable Care Act” health plans. Something that is missing in the debate is why ACA plans are so unaffordable. Hint: it is due to all the mandated benefits and costly insurance regulations.
Thursday Links – 22 January 2026
- Why do voters blame drug companies more than hospitals for the high costs of health care?
- As many as 24 Chicago schools had literally zero students who met basic reading proficiency standards in 2024.
- The strange spiritual and religious beliefs of Casey Means, nominated to be Surgeon General.
- The Trump administration has achieved an estimated $211.8 billion in net savings from deregulation.
- Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the “income” growth for the poorest 20% of Americans over a more than four decades came not from the benefits of work, but from an expanded welfare state.
Congress Should Not Force Medicare to Reimburse New Technology without Evidence of Value
For the past several years Congress has been debating a version of Ensuring Patient Access to Critical Breakthrough Products Act. The goal is to force Medicare to reimburse new medical device products that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims are breakthrough devices, without letting Medicare determine whether these new devices have any value.