- Study: A 10 percentage point increase in Medicare Advantage penetration is associated with a 1.5% decrease in total Medicare spending.
- CBO data: “Despite historically unprecedented economic gains for low-income Americans, more of them are dependent on government assistance than at any point in the country’s history.”
- Red states are gaining population. “Conspicuous among the losers are Illinois, California, and New York – a trifecta of big government, big government spending, and high taxes.”
- UnitedHealthcare now gets more than three-quarters of its revenues from Uncle Sam, even though it covers almost twice as many people in its private, commercial plans sunce the onset of Obamacare.
- What if AI could not only diagnose, but also write prescriptions? (Forbes)
- Delta: members of Congress no longer get to skip the TSA waiting lines. (Forbes)
Category: Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare
Saturday Links – 21 March 2026
- Capretta: About 40 percent of total health spending is for services that are amenable to consumer discretion in the sense that they are relatively routine, involve high volumes of patients, allow for a degree of choice of provider, and involve some choice of timing.
- Better at hacking than the world’s best hackers: AI.
- Education: (HT: Arnold Kling)
Reading skills among US students [are] now at the lowest levels ever measured. One third can’t even read at a basic level. “They can’t write a sentence,” laments one frustrated teacher. “They don’t know what state they live in. They don’t know what region of the country they’re in. They have no background knowledge. Most of them don’t know who the president is.”
Microsoft Rolls Out Copilot Health, an AI Personal Health App
Microsoft reported the initiative was developed with internal clinicians, its team of engineers and a panel of 230 doctors to provide medical expertise and safety feedback. While this is welcome news, it remains to be seen what benefit it will provide.