Between speaking engagements, work travel and vacations I was probably on a plane more than a dozen times a year. Over the years I noticed that I was far more likely to come down with a cold or the flu a few days after a flight than times when I had not traveled. One time I spoke on Obamacare for the Denver Federalist Society with plans to stay over and ski Arapahoe Basin. Two days later I had a severe cold. I could have been the unwitting vector who helped spread a virus from far flung places to Dallas.
Category: Medical Tourism
Thursday Links
- Capretta’s eat-your-spinach reform idea for Medicare: cut benefits and raise taxes.
- Florida’s answer to the doctor shortage: invite Latin American doctor to immigrate.
- Study: Taxes are a huge drag on innovation.
- “All told, British patients had access to just 59% of the 460 drugs launched between 2012 and 2021, as of October 2022. American patients had access to 85% of those drugs—more than any other country in the world.”
Thursday Links
- The Covid lockdowns appear to have caused a spike in alcohol related deaths.
- Why don’t we see dynamic pricing in health care?
- Why is Medicaid paying for Housing?
- 11 percent of U.S. 12 graders report using delta-8 (a psychoactive substance derived from hemp that is chemically very similar to delta-9-THC, the molecule in marijuana responsible for causing the high associated with taking cannabis).
- Social Security and Medicare spending are set to nearly double by 2033.
- Harvard’s Dr. Martin Kulldorff got the big things right on COVID, more than perhaps any other academic expert in America. He was censored on Twitter, fired by Harvard and fired by the CDC.
Saturday Links
- The top 1% now pay almost half of all federal income taxes – the highest in history.
- Why isn’t UV light everywhere?
- Bad news on alcohol: binge drinking affects microbe in your gut and makes you crave alcohol even more.
- More bad news on drinking and the microbiome. (NYT: gated)
- Trump tax cuts: the rich are now paying more than ever.
- Can recessions be good for our health?