- About one third of older adults reported being socially isolated in 2023, while nearly 40% reported a lack of companionship.
- Pfizer spent $14 million on its “Here’s to Science” commercial during the Super Bowl. Was it worth it?
- The Biden administration pressured Amazon to delist or downgrade books that disagreed with the White House.
- Heartland/Rasmussen survey in December revealed that roughly one in five mail-in voters admitted to potentially fraudulent actions in the presidential election.
- Kaiser to Oakland workers: Because of crime threat, stay inside for work and lunch.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Throwing Good Money after Bad
The goal of [the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation] (CMMI) is to identify demonstration models that aim to improve quality of care OR reduce spending. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may expand models nationwide if the Secretary determines that either criterion is met.
Source: House Budget Committee
Medicare Fraud is too Easy (and Widespread)
Late last summer Pamela Ludwig, owner of a Franklin, Tennessee firm that goes by the name Pretty in Pink Boutique, began receiving calls from angry Medicare enrollees across the country. The seniors were mad that their Medicare accounts had been charged for urinary catheters they did not need, nor had received. About the same time 1,300 miles away in El Paso, Texas Erika Tavarez too began receiving angry emails and then a visit from the FBI. She had recently sold a durable medical equipment business, also called Pretty in Pink, that provided prothesis for breast cancer survivors.
Monday Links
- Steuerle on the marriage tax: marital penalties are marriage vow penalties easily avoided by those who don’t believe in the vows.
- Lookism: how you look may affect your outcome in courts of law. HT: Tyler
- Margaret Mead was an early LSD experimenter with CIA funding.
- A little appreciated fact about federal government finances: for the past 50 years federal revenues have averaged about 18% of GDP and have never reached 20% — despite many many changes in the tax code. Could this represent a “law” of public finance?