Covid and the lockdowns increased self-reported cases of anxiety and depression but patients were unable to meet therapists face-to-face. All forms of telemedicine rose in 2020 and 2021 including psychotherapy. Covid jump started online and telephone-based metal health counseling. As a result, therapist and patient began connecting through apps.
Category: Authors
Did Efforts to Protect the Elderly from Covid Cost the Lives of the Young?
Peter Coy writes:
the number of people ages 25 through 44 who died from all causes in the United States in 2021 was 52 percent higher than the number who died in an average year from 2015 to 2019,
whereas among seniors the increase was only 9 percent.
An NBER Working Paper by Casey Mulligan and Robert Arnott calls the elevated death toll among younger Americans “a historic, yet largely unacknowledged, health emergency.” It asks whether young adults suffered “collateral damage” from policies such as lockdowns that were meant to protect older people. They write:
All of this suggests that large and sustained changes in living habits designed to avoid a single virus had not only “economic” opportunity costs, but also cost a shockingly large number of young lives.
Health Care Sharing Ministries are an Alternative to Obamacare
Consumers who want to join a sharing ministry should check to make sure the sharing ministry plan is right for them the same as they would for Obamacare plans. Many sharing ministries either have a waiting period or do not cover pre-existing conditions, for example. Many (if not all) have specific criteria for things they will not cover. These include claims such as drug addiction treatment, sometimes even out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
$783.5M in Covid Relief Money Went to Prisoners
Passed in March, the American Rescue Plan granted $1,400 in stimulus money to people making less than $75,000 per year. Republicans objected to sending these checks to incarcerated individuals, but lost on a party line vote. According to a Fox News report:
In response to a public records request from conservative group American Crossroads, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revealed that the money flowed to 560,000 individuals who were incarcerated for the full tax year 2020.
Among the recipients of Covid money was the Boston Marathon Bomber.