- More than 60 major health insurance companies have committed to six actions to streamline the use of prior authorization.
- In “No Surprise Act” arbitrations, providers win 72–85 percent of the time.
- Schaeffer Center Study: The Inflation Reduction Act IRA) is poised to raise drug costs for most Medicare beneficiaries.
- “There are an estimated 25,000 near-Earth asteroids at least 460 feet wide — large enough to destroy a city — and only 44 percent of them have been found.” (NYT)
- One in four abortions in the U.S. were provided using telehealth at the end of 2024.
- Everything you wanted to know about garlic.
Category: John C. Goodman
Wednesday Links
- Illegal crossings were cut to almost zero in the 1950s and early 1960s when we had the Bracero Program that allowed Mexicans and Central Americans to work seasonally in agricultural jobs.
- The government’s official guidelines on a heathy diet: The 1980 guidelines were a mere 18 pages. By 2000, the document had more than doubled, to 39 pages. By 2010, it reached 95 pages. Yet the government’s overarching advice on how to eat healthier hasn’t changed in the past 35 years.
- How OBBBA will tax colleges and universities and a slew of tax avoidance measures that will likely ensue.
- Per unit of energy produced, oil and gas get zero subsidies (they are net taxpayers), nuclear gets less than $1, wind gets almost $6, and solar gets more than $40.
- Something I have advocated for decades: let independent contractors have portable benefits.
Tuesday Links
- Questionable theory: exposure to toxic metals can lead to extreme violence (including serial killing). (NYT)
- “Taiwan is the nicest and most pleasant place I’ve ever been.”
- Is there a relationship between scores on doctors’ required certification tests and patient outcomes?
- Social Security’s 75-year unfunded liability is $72.8 trillion — more than twice official national debt.
- The Social Security Fairness Act (allowing public employees to collect benefits they never earned) added $10 trillion to SS’s 75-year unfunded liability.
Monday Links
- Public school open enrollment. In states that allow it, 10% of students attend a school based on choice, not on their residence.
- Student grades are higher when there is a father around.
- Analysis: work requirements lead to more work and higher incomes.
- Trustees: Social Security and Medicare Part A each have 8 years: With no reform, SS must be cut by 19%; Medicare by 11%.
- The combined (Republican) Medicaid and SNAP cuts of $110 billion a year will represent just 2.9 percent of total state spending.
- Of all the provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill, expanding the Health Savings Account tax cut garnered the highest support: 68% among Democrats, 77% among Republicans, and 67% among Independents. (Harvard CAP/Harris Poll on page 51)