- Active-selection (where seniors are forced to choose between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage) is better than default selection (where seniors are assigned to one or the other when they fail to make a choice).
- Benefits of forced saving over pay-as-you-go Social Security.
- KFF survey: “Six in ten adults (61%) who buy their health coverage on the ACA Marketplace say it is very or somewhat difficult to afford their deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for medical care and half (51%) say it is difficult to afford the cost of health insurance premiums each month.”
- One reason the UK is considering assisted dying: they are rationing hospice care. (Bloomberg)
- Melania: some day a robot like “Plato” will replace ordinary classroom teachers.
- The “Surprise Test Paradox.”
- While opioid overdose deaths are down, cocaine use is up.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Thursday Links – 26 March 2026
- 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)
Ozempic’s Patent is Expiring Around the World, but Not in U.S.
Ozempic and Wegovy (both Semaglutide) recently lost patent protection in countries where 40% of the world’s population live. The list includes India, China, Turkey, Canada, South Africa, and Brazil. Thus, a drug which most of these countries’ population could not afford may now have access to a weight-loss drug for as little as $15 a month. The price is speculative, firm prices are not yet known but will likely fall over time as more competitors begin to produce the drug.
Wednesday Links – 25 March 2026
- Coffee appears to be good for the brain.
- Congress: release the Epstein files, but don’t release any reports on our own misbehavior.
- Jerome Powell: “there’s zero net job creation in the private sector” over roughly the past six months.
- Is Elon going to pay TSA salaries?
- Yglesias: “the number one thing that I wish people understood about K-12 education in the United States is that while the [No-Child-Left-Behind] regime was in place, our schools got better.”