- Lilly’s weight loss drug: if you stop taking it you will regain half the weight you have lost.
- Trump’s environmental record was surprisingly good.
- A typical couple reaching age 65 and retiring in 2020 has paid $680,000 in lifetime taxes. They can expect lifetime benefits of about $1.24 million. Most retiree couples are “Social Security millionaires,” regardless of other income and assets.
- One in four animals raised for food are never eaten.
- There are over 73,000 contract pharmacies that qualify for 340B discounts. Is anybody paying list price for these drugs?
Category: John C. Goodman
Tuesday Links
- 65 bullet points on leftwing antisemitism. There is a reason why socialism and antisemitism were closely aligned in the 20th century: both are variations of collectivism.
- Thinking about dying.
- What does hospital price transparency have to do with community health centers? The former is an excuse for funding the latter.
- Illness can be financially devastating – in the US, but also in Canada and Britain. The reason: It’s not because of medical bills. It’s because of a lack of income from work.
Monday Links
- During the pandemic, government payments for social benefits rose by $1.5 trillion, or 47%, between 2019 and 2021. At the same time, the official poverty rate rose to 11.6% from 10.5%.
- Using a consistent measure of poverty, AEI researchers find that only 1.6% of the population lives in poverty, well below the official poverty rate of 10.5%.
- The case for a value added tax.
- Likely scenarios if the government seizes drug company patents: They’re all bad.
- New technology can identify genetic defects before Invitro Fertilization begins.
- “Canadian woman is diagnosed with cancer, told she has 2 years to live at most, that she is not a candidate for surgery but would she like medical help committing suicide? She declines, comes to the United States, spends a lot of money, and is treated within weeks.”
Saturday Links
- More details on Biden’s plan to seize drug company patents.
- Update: 2 million, rather than previously reported 1 million, Social Security retirees got clawback letters last year.
- First-ever gene editing therapies approved to cure sickle cell disease.
- Canada’s system of socialized medicine now has the longest wait times to receive medical treatment ever recorded.
- Scholarly studies: consumer directed health plans reduce health care spending by approximately 5–15 percent relative to similar plans with lower deductibles and without spending accounts.