- Plusses and minuses of an aspirin a day.
- Benefits of a Brazil nut a day.
- Cutting funds for vaccine research (and spending them in better ways) may make sense.
- American Action Forum on the MAHA report.
- New York spends twice as much per person as Florida.
- Out-of-pocket costs for a typical enrollee are 18–24 percent lower in Medicare Advantage than in traditional fee-for-service Medicare.
- RFK, Jr. seems to have broken all his promises to Sen Cassidy.
Category: Medicare
Thursday Links
- How Cato would reform Medicare.
- Study: physical fitness is associated with lower mortality from cardiovascular disease, cancer and even accidents. (speculative)
- Meta-analysis: cutting back on social media use does not conclusively lead to meaningful improvements in youth mental health.
- AAF: Senate attempts to cut Medicare Advantage funding are a mistake.
- Trump now opposes Medicaid money laundering by the states (taxing providers and then giving the money back after it is matched) that got a big boost during his first administration.
Friday Links
- The plan that is now being debated in the House has net spending reductions of roughly $1.2 trillion. Instead of spending $89.3 trillion, the “cruel” Republicans want to only spend $88.1 trillion – a measly 1.5% cut.
- “Our research finds that the growing presence of asylum seekers [illegal immigrants] residing in homeless shelters explains about 60 percent of this rise in sheltered homelessness.”
- “The Trump administration handed Medicare Advantage plans a massive gift on Monday, finalizing payment rates for 2026 significantly higher than what regulators in the Biden administration sketched out.”
- An “intelligent” hospital room allows for virtual nursing.
- Antarctica’s massive ice sheet is growing, not shrinking.
Are Drug Middlemen to Blame for High Drug Prices?
Over the years I have worked on projects defending the role of drug middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMs are essentially volume purchasers of drugs who manage drug benefits for insurers, Medicare, Medicaid, and health plans. PBMs negotiate deals with drug makers, wholesalers, and pharmacies. At least in theory, health plans benefit from the PBM’s buying power, getting most of the drug rebates and negotiated discounts PBMs arranged with drug makers.