- Our species has been on earth for only about 300,000 years; but 2.6 million years ago, our pre-human ancestors were making stone tools. This sweep of history by Matt Yglesias is recommended
- Two things have grown dramatically over the past decade: the number of people with health insurance and the number of pharmacies getting discounted drugs because they service uninsured patients. The 340B program is costing Medicaid $32 billion a year – mainly because of perverse incentives.
- Positive and negative moods are contagious.
- Woman has a bionic arm and hand, “which she uses confidently to open containers, make morning coffee, water plants and put her clothes on hangers.”
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Friday Links
- The Deputy Director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review declined the covid booster shot. Recommended
- 11% of all physicians in the United States and 25% of current medical students are osteopaths.
- Gen Z college students: mainly ignorant about the world.
- CBO: If Congress allows the Obamacare “enhanced subsidies” to expire next year, the population of uninsured will increase by only one percentage point.
- Capretta on the benefits of price transparency and the many reason it isn’t working very well.
Thursday Links
- The 21% corporate tax rate is permanent. Other parts of the 2017 tax bill expire next year.
- How to lower the cost of Part B drugs: let Medicare Advantage plans do the negotiating.
- Because of a questionable gimmick, California’s Medicaid program that will get $19.4 billion in additional federal funds. This is revenue other states will not get.
- Give Walmart credit for lower insulin prices – not Trump or Biden.
- Only about 60% of psychiatrists accept new Medicare patients, and just 43% accept new Medicaid patients. (STAT) Plus, there is this:
“A psychiatrist could make more than double from seeing a patient and billing them directly rather than taking Medicare, and make three times as much compared to Medicaid.”
NYT: Cliques, Mean Girls, Bullies and Aggression Are Common in… Nursing Homes
High school kids are known to be petty, with cliques, mean girls, bullies, and various pecking orders. Most people would be surprised to discover that nursing homes have a lot in common with high school.
Arguments, verbal abuse and aggression are not unusual in elder care settings.