Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was routinely prescribed to women seeking relief from menopausal symptoms 25 years ago. This all changed in 2002, when the Women’s Health Initiative released a report suggesting HRT increased the risk of blood clots, strokes, breast cancer and possibly dementia. The number of women using HRT fell nearly 80% overnight.
Friday Links
- How the war of words over vaccines is affecting doctors and patients.
- When it comes to cognitive capacities, the 70s are indeed the new 50s: A person who was 70 in 2022 had the same cognitive health score as a 53-year-old in 2000.
- New RFK rule would pay specialists less and primary care doctors more.
- CMS: the health care sector will grow faster than GDP — growing from 17.6 percent of GDP in 2023 to 20.3 percent in 2033.
- 80% of the money nonprofit hospitals get through public tax breaks is not being used for charity care.
- Paragon: health provisions in the BBB.
- The Valley of Death, with the median time from FDA approval of a novel technology to Medicare coverage is 5.7 years.
Thursday Links
- David Henderson on the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
- Bill Gates: The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) together have saved about 37 million people since 2003. (WSJ)
- Joe Klein: It is hard to win elections when you hate your country.
- Andrew Biggs: Social Security is in trouble because the initial benefit is wage indexed.
- High school graduation rates are up; SAT scores are down. (We are handing out diplomas to students who can’t read.)
NYT: Medicare to Curtail Abusive Spending on Hyper-Expensive Bandages
Going after Medicare abuse is like playing whack a mole. Just when you think you have made some headway another mole pops out. The Biden Administration, and now the Trump Administration, is moving to limit the use – and limit the price paid – for so-called skin substitutes in Medicare. Skin substitutes are newfangled bandages.