- Why do voters blame drug companies more than hospitals for the high costs of health care?
- As many as 24 Chicago schools had literally zero students who met basic reading proficiency standards in 2024.
- The strange spiritual and religious beliefs of Casey Means, nominated to be Surgeon General.
- The Trump administration has achieved an estimated $211.8 billion in net savings from deregulation.
- Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the “income” growth for the poorest 20% of Americans over a more than four decades came not from the benefits of work, but from an expanded welfare state.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Wednesday Links
- Can Greek philosophy tell us anything about prostrate cancer screening?
- Is RFK Jr. waging a war on women?
- IU football: the greatest two-year turnaround in the history of college football and quite possibly all of sports.
- Even a tablespoon of olive oil every day can lower the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, cancer and even dementia.
Tuesday Links
- The enrollment Apocalypse that never happened. CBO forecast for ACA enrollment for 2026: 18.9. Actual enrollment: 22.8 – higher than in 2024.
- Nearly one-third of American adults say they would prefer to reduce or avoid eating gluten.
- Mirror Life, If it were ever created – for example, by bioterrorists, risky research + lab leak, or a rogue AI – it could act as a sort of super-invasive species that would threaten most forms of normal life, including humans.
- “When Elon Musk’s DOGE sought to crack down on instances of government waste, fraud, and abuse last year, the narrative was that Uncle Sam was ripping off taxpayers, when many cases of fraud actually involve businesses and schemers ripping off the government.”
Should Medical Care Be a Consumer Good?
Republicans wisely want to inject more consumerism into the medical marketplace. Health savings accounts, high-deductible health plans, direct primary care, price transparency are all attempts to encourage patients to act more like consumers. Democrats, by contrast, seemingly want to remove every shred of consumer sovereignty from health care. Not to cast aspersions, but it is true. Obamacare is but one example.