- The first human implanted with a chip from Elon Musk’s computer-brain interface company can move a computer mouse with thought alone.
- A completely false headline: Banning surprise medical bills is raising costs elsewhere. (STAT: gated) It’s saving patients money and causing insurers to pay a bit more. What else would you expect????
- Shkreli Awards (for 2023) have arrived. My favorite: the CEO of the nation’s largest nonprofit hospital chain gets a salary of $35 million.
- More evidence in favor of the Mediterranean diet.
- Families USA (which traditionally has advocated socialism in health care) has a quasi-capitalist plan for health care reform.
- After all these years, Matthew Holt still can’t figure out how to reduce health care costs. (Hint: look at how costs are reduced in every other market.)
Category: Thursday Links
Thursday Links
- About one third of older adults reported being socially isolated in 2023, while nearly 40% reported a lack of companionship.
- Pfizer spent $14 million on its “Here’s to Science” commercial during the Super Bowl. Was it worth it?
- The Biden administration pressured Amazon to delist or downgrade books that disagreed with the White House.
- Heartland/Rasmussen survey in December revealed that roughly one in five mail-in voters admitted to potentially fraudulent actions in the presidential election.
- Kaiser to Oakland workers: Because of crime threat, stay inside for work and lunch.
Thursday Links
- Prescription drug pricing: Most cost-effectiveness analyses exclude probable end-of-patent, life cycle pricing – and set the initial price too low.
- Private approaches may be the best answer to public health problems.
- Rep Michael Burgess on why the CBO needs to consider the long-term benefits of preventive medicine.
- Looks like there are more deaths by fire than by ice. But there are still more deaths by cold than by warming.
Thursday Links
- First human receives a computer chip implant that interfaces with the brain. (per Elon Musk)
- Canadian Health Minister: Canada will block drug sales to the US if they threaten to impair access for Canadians.
- How can childcare cost more than college?
- Sex matters: “female patients randomly assigned a female doctor rather than a male doctor [under Texas workers compensation] are 5.2 percent more likely to be evaluated as disabled and receive 8.6 percent more subsequent cash benefits on average.”
- If you are ever reincarnated, don’t come back as a crab-eating macaque. They are used for toxicology testing in the biomedical industry.