A curious article in Kaiser Health News (KHN) tries to explain why “even public health experts have limited insight into stopping gun violence in America.” KHN lays the blame on the National Rifle Association and a nearly 30-year old budget amendment that prevents the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding research promoting gun control. KHN goes on to say that despite the ban on using CDC funds to advocate for gun control, there is a cottage industry of academics who are working to reduce gun violence.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Thursday Links
- Study: diet soft drinks are bad for your heart.
- The “pill penalty”: Medicare will set prices for pills, tablets and capsules 9 years after FDA approval. But biologics get 13 years. Go figure.
- Because of an outdated FDA approval process the family had to take their daughter to Italy to save her life.
- “The reason why Singapore spends so much less on health than other developed countries is its low hospital utilization.” HT: Tyler
- All you want to know (and then some) about fasting.
Federal Consumer Protection Agency Wants to Rein-In Medical Debt Collectors
The purpose of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive financial practices. President Obama signed legislation creating the CFPB in 2010. Since its inception the agency has worked to rein in abusive practices at banks, student loans taken out to attend substandard for-profit universities and abuses at mortgage brokers. Lately the federal agency has taken aim at hospital debt collectors.
Monday Links
- How the Eugenics Movement found its way into American law. (Missing: the word “progressive.”)
- Cato: 8 reforms for Medicaid. Missing: giving money to the beneficiaries and allowing direct primary care.
- “Two years into the pandemic, more than 150,000 US nursing home residents had died of COVID-19 – roughly 10% of the total U.S. nursing home population. Sadly, well-intentioned lockdowns made things worse.”
- Share of GDP spent on long term care varies from under 1% in Spain to over 4% in the Netherlands. Lots of data from a study by Gruber, et. al.