- Under no-give, no-take, people who sign their organ donor cards get priority should they one day need an organ.
- Social spending as a percentage of GDP has increased in basically every country that we have data for over time.
- Is there a relationship between penis length and IQ? HT: Tyler
- Masturbation is healthy.
- Why are so many pedestrians getting killed? Are cell phones to blame? (NYT)
Category: Tuesday Links
Tuesday Links
- NYU Lagone Health is offering virtual urgent care as an alternative to the emergency room.
- Matt Holt: while primary care is skimping by, hospitals have so much money they are paying their senior people million dollar salaries and starting hedge funds.
- Direct Primary Care: Society of Actuaries study: ER visit are 40% lower.
- Direct Primary Care case study: DPC reduced health plan spending by 54%, employees’ out-of-pocket costs at the point of care by 30%, and employee premiums by 20%.
Tuesday Links
- Health Care Innovation. Accolade offers services that sound similar to Medici, which I wrote about at Forbes recently. CEO Raj Singh says that although most people have a primary care doctor, it typically takes 30 days to get an appointment. With Accolade they can get a video consultation in 15 minutes. Like Medici, they offer second opinions on more serious health care procedures. See Singh’s interview with Matthew Holt. Best line: In the near future, “every company will be an AI company, or they will be out of business.”
- Genes Matter. Study: “a one standard-deviation increase in parents’ looks is associated with a 0.4 standard-deviation increase in their child’s looks.” And since looks and income are correlated, a “one standard-deviation difference in parents’ looks generates a 0.06 standard-deviation difference in their adult child’s earnings, which amounts to additional annual earnings in the U.S. of about $2300.”
Tuesday Links
- Why do Academic medical centers fail to succeed in value-based care? My theory: they function more like universities than like real businesses.
- If a vaccine is in limited supply and has to be rationed, does it make sense to give people partial doses?
- Covid spending correlates with inflation rates across 37 countries.
- Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. The second type of person will always gain control of the organization. HT: Arnold Kling