- There are more living cells on Earth — a million trillion trillion, or 10^30 in math notation, a 1 followed by 30 zeros — than there are stars in the universe or grains of sand on our planet.
- Elisabeth Warren’s solution to the generic drug shortage problem: let nonprofit companies produce them.
- Employers are hiring virtual providers as weight-loss drug gatekeepers.
- What is mifepristone? It is used in more than half of all US abortions.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Wednesday Links
- Lilly’s weight loss drug: if you stop taking it you will regain half the weight you have lost.
- Trump’s environmental record was surprisingly good.
- A typical couple reaching age 65 and retiring in 2020 has paid $680,000 in lifetime taxes. They can expect lifetime benefits of about $1.24 million. Most retiree couples are “Social Security millionaires,” regardless of other income and assets.
- One in four animals raised for food are never eaten.
- There are over 73,000 contract pharmacies that qualify for 340B discounts. Is anybody paying list price for these drugs?
More Physicians Want to Work in Medical Business, Not Medical Practice
A recent survey found that more than half of both medical students and nurses in training prefer not to work in patient care. In the United States 63% of medical students and 60% of nursing students report hoping to work in non-clinical areas of medicine, such as public health management, research or business consultancy.
Monday Links
- During the pandemic, government payments for social benefits rose by $1.5 trillion, or 47%, between 2019 and 2021. At the same time, the official poverty rate rose to 11.6% from 10.5%.
- Using a consistent measure of poverty, AEI researchers find that only 1.6% of the population lives in poverty, well below the official poverty rate of 10.5%.
- The case for a value added tax.
- Likely scenarios if the government seizes drug company patents: They’re all bad.
- New technology can identify genetic defects before Invitro Fertilization begins.
- “Canadian woman is diagnosed with cancer, told she has 2 years to live at most, that she is not a candidate for surgery but would she like medical help committing suicide? She declines, comes to the United States, spends a lot of money, and is treated within weeks.”