- Wealth inequality has barely changed over the last 30 years if Social Security wealth is included.
- Private insurers are paying 78 percent more at hospital outpatient departments than they pay at ambulatory surgical centers. Medicare payments are 97 percent higher.
- Takaichi Sanae: She plays the drums and rides a motor cycle.
- With Covid-era subsidies, Obamacare is almost free.
- Gingrich and Jindal: Use the $50 billion for rural health care for prevention and primary care. rather than to extend the life of unsustainable facilities.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Thursday Links
- Study: Wegovy lowers the risk of heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular issues by 20 percent, independent of weight loss. (NYT)
- A centimeter of hair captures about a month’s worth of biological data, so doctors can test hair for drug use, poisonings, chronic stress and even medication adherence.
- Is the FDA creating new obstacles to the approval of promising new drugs? (WSJ)
- Physician “overcoding”: BCBS of Massachusetts suspects 1% to 2% of primary care physicians and 3% to 4% of specialists in its network.
- Bill Gates: Climate change is not an existential threat.
Should Drugmakers Have to Prove Their Drugs Work?
New drugs benefit American patients. Increasing the number of drugs in the pipeline will likely boost drug spending but also increase the number of new or improved drug therapies. It will also increase the number of generic drugs 20 years down the road. Shortening the length of time it takes new drugs to gain approval would also boost competition with earlier drugs that are still under patent protection.
Wednesday Links
- At 6 percent of GDP, the deficit of $1.8 trillion is unlike anything we’ve seen during times of relative prosperity.
- Krugman: the food stamp program is most important to overwhelmingly white rural counties that strongly supported Trump.
- Was there really a Our Lady of Fatima miracle in 1917?
- The Pharmaceutical Derangement Syndrome (PDS) explained.
- 14 reasons to like the big beautiful tax bill.