- Why Jackson Miss. doesn’t have water: they gave too much of it away for free.
- Why the prohibition on consuming raw milk from your own cow really matters.
- The latest fertility numbers. It takes 2.1 births per woman of child bearing age to replace a country’s population. Most developed countries are well below that.
- The downside of capping the price of insulin: it will encourage its use over newer, better, and more expensive alternative treatments. ”That will mean more disease, more disability, and more death from diabetes.”
Category: Direct Primary Care
Jackson’s Water Crisis; Krugman Off the Rails
Jackson, the state capital and largest Mississippi city, is run by Democrats. Its mayor and most of the city council members are Black. You may have read that the entire city is without safe drinking water, with no end in sight. The reason is well understood locally. The city is poorly run.
Monday Links
- Should vending machines be available to dispense medication for opioid overdoses?
- Why are people having less sex?
- Study: Native Americans, once among the tallest people in the world, lost their height advantage after the demise of the bison.
- How university research → startup companies → commercial innovation led to the Moderna Covid vaccine.
- How colleges and students scam the student loan program and why Biden’s new executive order will make things much worse.
- Euthanasia is the sixth leading cause of death in Canada.
Stat News: Medicare’s Bundled Payment Initiative for Joint Replacement a Rigged Game
The price Medicare pays for joint replacement had hardy changed in two decades when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began an experimental program to pay bundled payments for a full 90-day episode of care. The program was designed to save Medicare money while rewarding surgeons who keep costs down and penalizing those whose costs are higher.
Surgeons whose patients cost Medicare less than the lump sum over 90 days get a portion of their savings as a reward. Surgeons who don’t save Medicare money face penalties large enough to bankrupt them.