- Claude 3 gets 101 on an IQ test — beats all the other AIs.
- First OTC birth control pill arrives. Something our health economists have been promoting for years.
- In addition to Neanderthal DNA, billions of people have Denisovan DNA. (NYT)
- Does poverty affect decision-making in a way that may cause one to remain in poverty? The evidence is weak – despite many attempts to establish it.
- More than 80,000 Americans die of opioid overdose each year despite the availability of lifesaving medications like methadone and buprenorphine. Barely one-fifth of Americans with opioid use disorder receive either drug.
Category: Health Reform
Federal Consumer Protection Agency Wants to Rein-In Medical Debt Collectors
The purpose of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive financial practices. President Obama signed legislation creating the CFPB in 2010. Since its inception the agency has worked to rein in abusive practices at banks, student loans taken out to attend substandard for-profit universities and abuses at mortgage brokers. Lately the federal agency has taken aim at hospital debt collectors.
Tuesday Links
- Tyler Cowen: Biden economic policy is huge spending on green energy technology with borrowed money. It’s too soon to know if it will pay off.
- How young women responded to Covid: they took antidepressants.
- “Zero Tolerance” laws, which set strict alcohol limits for drivers under age 21 and led to sharp reductions in youth binge drinking and led to health and income gains later in life.
- Financial penalties for delayed enrollment to encourage people to enroll earlier in health insurance markets work initially, but then lose steam – at least in Australia.
How Colorado’s State-Owned, Nonprofit Hospital Makes Money
UCHealth … has $5 BILLION in its hedge fund, and its CEO (I think) made $8m. It hasn’t filed a 990 for years as far as I can tell. Which is probably illegal.
UC has been getting collection agencies to sue patients who owe them trivial amounts of money, and hiding the fact that UC is the actor behind the suit…. The tales here are awful. Little old ladies being forced to sell their engagement rings, and uninsured immigrants being taken to the ER against their will and given a total runaround on costs until they end up in court.
What’s the end story here? UC Health gets a measly $5m (or a share of it) a year from all these lawsuits which is less than the CEO makes….