- Kaiser: the average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health insurance coverage was $23,968 in 2023.
- Study: Fentanyl “accounts for 90% of all opioid deaths… We show that a substantial amount of fentanyl smuggling occurs via legal trade flows.”
- In 2021, the U.S. spent $1,432 per capita on pharmaceuticals compared to only $517 in the UK. One reason: the value of a statistical life in the UK is pegged at £20,000 – £30,000, compared to $100,000 – $150,000 in the US.
- Headline I wish hadn’t seen: New York City will pay homeowners up to $395,00 to build an extra dwelling in their garage or basement to help ease the housing shortage.
- Gene Steuerle’s NYT piece on how much seniors get from the government’s elderly entitlement programs is no longer behind a paywall. Fascinating graphs.
Category: Drug Prices & Regulations
Tuesday Links
- Why do hospitalizations increase in the last quarter of the year?
- Scientists use AI to find an antibiotic for a multidrug-resistant bacteria.
- Scientists have managed to preserve rat kidneys for 100 days. Apparently, that’s good news for humans.
- For medical student education, is a virtual cadaver as good (or better) than a real one?
- Are crisis pregnancy centers deceiving pregnant mothers?
Thursday Links
- The Pilgrims’ real Thanksgiving lesson
- Was the original Thanksgiving a celebration of the massacre of Indians? No. That’s woke propaganda.
- How to get 8 countries to cooperate on cancer drug research: Start the project before telling any of the regulators.
- Bidenflation: Employer health insurance costs are up 7%; Obamacare exchange plans are up 6%.
- Why are those who supported the Covid lockdowns trying to suppress research showing that the lockdowns didn’t work?
- CDC: Last year’s flu shot was less than 50 percent effective for children and adolescents.
Wednesday Links
- When a key employee leaves: OpenAI is in open chaos.
- More on Sam Altman: he believed his company’s products could kill us all.
- Social Security’s Widows Scam: Some 13,000 widows have been effectively defrauded out of over $130 million dollars.
- 59 percent of Americans say money can buy happiness. How much money? Around $1.2 million.
- Why choice of a doctor matters: Between the top and bottom quartiles of spending, 79% of the difference is due to utilization and 19% is due to a difference in prices.