Nearly 100 million people have health coverage through self-insured employer plans. Self-insured health plans are arrangements where large employers take on the risk of their employees’ medical costs rather than purchasing coverage through an insurer. One advantage of self-insurance is that self-insured plans are regulated by the federal government, rather than states laws. In addition, some employers may have healthy workers and can assume the risk of employee health needs cheaper than insuring them.
Category: Health Reform
Friday Links
- Anthrobots are biological robots, made from human cells, that “can be coached to do something they would never have done on their own.”
- A critical analysis of a proposal to abolish the FDA, by Scott Alexander.
- Blue cities are more segregated than the rest of America.
- A brief history of torture in judicial proceedings, including the modern era.
- Despite its being in place for more than half a century and directing more than a billion dollars annually, there is limited evidence of the Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) program’s effectiveness at reducing geographic disparities in access to care or health outcomes.
Thursday Links – 14 December 2023
- 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.
Scientists Seek the Fountain of Youth, for Dogs and Humans
Dogs share greater genetic similarity to humans than other animal models that are routinely used for scientific research, such as rats. Dogs also share the same environment as humans, so they are a good subject to study for longevity. Dogs begin to experience many of the same age-related diseases as humans, including cancer, heart disease, renal failure, hip dysplasia, and others. According to the Wall Street Journal, scientists are studying dogs to learn more about human longevity and hopefully extend it.