I’m scheduled to go to the dentist later this week. Years ago, the Wall Street Journal wrote about a dental divide. I searched for the old link but could not find one. The divide is between aggressive dentists who perform more procedures and conservative dentists who recommend fewer treatments. As I recall, the article said that within the dental industry there is friction between the two factions, with little agreement about what constitutes honest, recommended care and what constitutes excessive treatment. Purportedly, even the American Dental Association does not want to weigh-in and take a stand on the topic. It’s up to each dentist to decide.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Wednesday Links
- AARP study: Americans are 20 times more likely to save for retirement if do so if contributions are taken from a paycheck automatic. Auto enrollment in 401(k) plans was a key accomplishment of John Goodman, Pete DuPont and Peter Orszag.
- Congress has designated $12 trillion in spending for emergencies over the past 30 years.
- Roughly half or more of every race or religion believes that society discriminates against their kind and. Democrats and Republicans alike feel like they have been losing out to the other side.
- Fewer opioid prescriptions follow surgery and the doses are smaller.
Tuesday Links
- California state health insurance to cover sex changes for illegal immigrants.
- Good news about the new Covid strain.
- 56% of the economically most impactful technologies come from just two U.S. locations: Silicon Valley and the Northeast Corridor.
- Book: There is a worldwide epidemic of diabetes and it has one cause: carbohydrates.
Monday Links
- FDA approves Florida plan to import drugs from Canada.
- Nearly 53,000 more people died in the UK last year above the normal rate of mortal attrition. These excess deaths coincided with 38 days of strikes by doctors.
- Given low price inflation, why is unemployment so low? Because the Phillips Curve is based on wage inflation, not price inflation.
- What could kill the Schumer/McConnell/Johnson budget deal? A “poison pill” AKA an “abortion pill.”