- Book review: “Why did China manage to build the world’s biggest high-speed rail network in just a few years, while California has yet to build a single mile of operational train track despite almost two decades of trying?” (Recommended)
- Scott Sumner: In defense of China. (Also recommended)
- Why our hearts can be as much as 10 years older than our chronological age and what we can do about it.
- Pew Foundation: How government destroyed low-cost housing.
- It’s progressives who aren’t having children. HT: Arnold Kling
- If the money the federal government spent to reconstruct New Orleans after Katrina were given to people who live there in cash, it would amount to more than $1 million per household.
Category: Affordable Care Act
KFF: Preventive Care is not Always Free
The U.S. health care system has a cost problem. There is little in the way of competition because third parties pay about 89% of medical bills, while patients pay the remaining 11%. Long before patients enter their doctor’s office, third parties have decided which tasks they will pay for and how much they will pay. Federal and state laws mandate certain benefits that health plans must pay, but the rules are subject to interpretation.
Friday Links
- In 2020, the 10 percent tax bracket applied to incomes up to $9,875 for individuals and $19,750 for couples. Now, those thresholds have increased to $11,925 and $23,850 to account for inflation. But what if our inflation measure is wrong?
- AI scribes are helping doctors up code. (Statnews)
- In the first six months of the Trump administration, deregulation saved $86 billion in costs and 52.2 million hours of paperwork reductions.
- A plurality of Blacks and Native Americans live.in distressed ZIP codes with these characteristics:
More than one in five residents lives in poverty. The median local household earns nearly $30,000 less annually than the median household nationally. One in seven homes is vacant or abandoned, one-third of prime age adults are not working, jobs are disappearing, and businesses are closing even as the national economy booms.
Report: Medical Prices Vary Tremendously for No Valid Reason
Health care prices vary tremendously from one hospital to another, and from one region to another. While it is not uncommon for prices to vary in consumer markets, there is usually a reason. For instance, a cold beverage from a convenience store by the highway is more expensive for a reason – namely convenience – compared to the same beverage on a shelf at room temperature at the local grocery store. In addition, the difference in price is probably not a multiple of one versus the other. Not so with medical care…