When the Affordable Care Act was debated in Congress, and even earlier as progressives geared up for the fight, public health advocates often repeated the phrase, “health coverage will not be affordable until everyone has coverage.” The idea was that forcing everyone to have similar coverage, while charging similar rates, would somehow make coverage affordable. Or at least it would make coverage affordable for those with pre-existing conditions, if not for those who were healthier. I recently ran across someone who is blaming the high cost of Obamacare on the repeal of the individual mandate. Absent was any discussion about poorly crafted plan design, a multiplicity of mandated benefits and costly regulations.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Monday Links – 5 January 2025
- Living in a place that has large gaps between the rich and poor does not affect well-being or mental health.
- Study: Among Americans over 65 with diabetes, about 60 percent discontinued [a weight loss drug] within a year.
- The case that there has been no increase in autism.
- Why are gifts to football stadiums tax deductible?
- Rand Paul’s Annual Festivus Report: it documents $1.6 trillion squandered on everything from questionable science to social engineering schemes.
Friday Links
- AI induced psychosis is real for some patients.
- Has Trump fixed the federal government’s marijuana problem?
- Spending on 65+ individuals will reach 50% of federal outlays by 2029.
- China is willing to approve things like drone delivery, driverless cars and trucks, and remote-operated air taxis that Americans and Europeans balk at. (NYT)
- Against Clinton-era welfare reform.
Thursday Links – 1 January 2026
- Medical breakthroughs in 2025.
- Canadian health care: Since 2015, indigenous people have suffered a catastrophic collapse in health and well-being: on average almost a full decade of lost life expectancy.
- Study: Children’s myopia risk linked to smartphone use.
- Diets high in ultra processed food may be linked to problems across almost every major organ system.
- Since Covid, the USA has grown much faster than all our major competitors.