The information in this post was derived from a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. More.
Category: Policy & Legislation
Depressing News About Organ Transplants
The bad news in this post comes to us via Alex Tabarrok at the Marginal Revolution blog.
Thursday Links
- Studies: hugs are good for you.
- Regular mammograms identify 87% of breast cancers. AI programs can boost that detection rate by 20%, and the cost is $40 – $100 extra. Is that worth it?
- Study: There is no evidence that buying and then forgiving medical debts that are in collections improved on average beneficiaries’ finances, access to credit, or their physical or mental health. People were even less likely to pay existing medical bills after their debt was eliminated.
- PFAS are called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down for thousands of years, if at all. Turns out, they are everywhere, including our drinking water, and that could be hazardous to our health.
- The FDA has approved a test that predicts a patient’s risk of becoming addicted to opioids. Why is that controversial?
Saturday Links
- Landmark 15-year transgender study: Around one-in-10 children expressed “gender non-contentedness” to varying degrees. But by age 25, just one-in-25 (4 percent) said they “often” or “sometimes” were discontent with their gender.
- Illegal immigrants are leaving hospitals with billions in unpaid hospital bills.
- Was your operation performed by a doctor? Or by a medical student in training? And how do you really know?
- Only half of all adults are married. And that’s not good, because “Marriage predicts happiness better than education, work and money.” (NYT)
- NEJM in the 1930s: “When it did address Nazi ‘medical’ practices, the Journal enthusiastically praised German forced sterilization and the restrictive alcohol policies of the Hitler Youth.”
- More on why the 2017 tax cut was a good idea.