US life expectancy has bounced back.
Murder is down (and violence is down in general).
Overdoses are down.
Traffic deaths are down.
Fewer dating apps, but young people are having more sex.
Source: Noah Smith
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Weight-Loss Drugs Unlikely to Solve Obesity Crisis
Nearly three-quarters of American adults are overweight, while about 40% are obese. These numbers are huge, as are some of the people the numbers refer to. Weight-loss drugs are all the rage these days. It is difficult to imagine that it took years for scientists to figure out peptide drugs for diabetes were also good for weight loss in overweight adults.
Saturday Links
- Obamacare light: “this cautious approach will make it difficult to argue Republicans have a plan to lower costs for the majority of American consumers.”
- Against Republican Food Stamp restrictions. (I don’t agree. In most states you usually must certify your status weekly or bi-weekly to keep receiving Unemployment Compensation.)
- Senate Republican health plan: Eligible individuals age 18 to 49 with incomes below 700 percent of the federal poverty line would get $1,000 annually in 2026 and 2027, while those age 60 to 64 would get $1,500. Those amounts are far less than the $7,500 average deductible for bronze coverage in 2026 or the $10,600 required by the ACA’s catastrophic insurance plans.
- Unique study of the benefits of college admission: cost-benefit calculations show internal rates of return of 26 percent for the students, 16 percent for society (which must pay for the additional education), and 7 percent for the government budget.
Friday Links
- USA at 250: 4% of global population; 25% of global output; nearly half of all wealth.
- How India climbed out of poverty.
- Winners and losers in the US welfare state: “American heads of households younger than 35 now have a median net worth of about $39,000 and an average net worth of more than $183,000. Those over 75 have a median net worth of roughly $335,000 and an average net worth exceeding $1.6 million.”
- “From 2018 to 2023, the number of direct primary care and concierge practice sites grew by 83.1 percent and the number of clinicians participating in them by 78.4 percent.”
- Are Blacks and women favored over white men in elite occupations? Yes, but only if they’re politically progressive.
- More than two dozen states have passed laws banning or limiting gender-related treatments for minors in the last several years. On the other hand, A coalition of 19 states have sued to block the Trump administration’s plan to strip federal funding of such treatments across the whole country.