- Tyler Cowen: Biden economic policy is huge spending on green energy technology with borrowed money. It’s too soon to know if it will pay off.
- How young women responded to Covid: they took antidepressants.
- “Zero Tolerance” laws, which set strict alcohol limits for drivers under age 21 and led to sharp reductions in youth binge drinking and led to health and income gains later in life.
- Financial penalties for delayed enrollment to encourage people to enroll earlier in health insurance markets work initially, but then lose steam – at least in Australia.
How Colorado’s State-Owned, Nonprofit Hospital Makes Money
UCHealth … has $5 BILLION in its hedge fund, and its CEO (I think) made $8m. It hasn’t filed a 990 for years as far as I can tell. Which is probably illegal.
UC has been getting collection agencies to sue patients who owe them trivial amounts of money, and hiding the fact that UC is the actor behind the suit…. The tales here are awful. Little old ladies being forced to sell their engagement rings, and uninsured immigrants being taken to the ER against their will and given a total runaround on costs until they end up in court.
What’s the end story here? UC Health gets a measly $5m (or a share of it) a year from all these lawsuits which is less than the CEO makes….
Monday Links
- How the Eugenics Movement found its way into American law. (Missing: the word “progressive.”)
- Cato: 8 reforms for Medicaid. Missing: giving money to the beneficiaries and allowing direct primary care.
- “Two years into the pandemic, more than 150,000 US nursing home residents had died of COVID-19 – roughly 10% of the total U.S. nursing home population. Sadly, well-intentioned lockdowns made things worse.”
- Share of GDP spent on long term care varies from under 1% in Spain to over 4% in the Netherlands. Lots of data from a study by Gruber, et. al.
Saturday Links
- Eugene Steuerle on why Donald Trump and other wealthy people like to borrow. Recommended
- New evidence that Covid was developed in a lab. (WSJ)
- There are over 10,000 known rare diseases and most don’t have a drug approved to treat them. The FDA has approved over 19,000 prescription drugs. Could AI find cures in the 19K to treat the 10K? (WSJ)
- After Morley Safer attributed France’s lower rate of heart disease to drinking red wine in a 1991 segment of 60 Minutes, red wine sales in the United States jumped 40 percent. New research says that’s all wrong.
- AFP: What is an HSA? (30 sec video)
- AFP: How does an HSA benefit you? (30 sec video)
- Members of Congress are upset that Pfizer gave a $50 donation to Dying with Dignity, Canada.
- Danger at the beach: Sand holes are about as deadly as sharks.