- George W. Bush’s PEPFAR initiative is credited with saving at least 20 million lives. Nick Kristof calls it “the single best policy of any president in my lifetime.”
- Old people are the wealthiest and most powerful demographic in the United States. Despite this, they are overwhelmingly beneficiaries of the welfare state, have seniority rights in employment, and are a protected class when it comes to anti-discrimination laws. This essay argues that this is a bad thing …..
- Dickens on poverty (and an unkind word for economists).
- People think chatbots are more empathetic than doctors 80% of the time.
Category: Tuesday Links
Tuesday Links
- Health care spending drops back to 17.3% of GDP.
- A less rosy view of the future of heath care spending.
- Paragon Health Institute: Medicaid expansion leads to a surge in spending, but reduces healthcare access for traditional Medicaid enrollees such as low-income children and people with disabilities and it doesn’t improve health.
- Biden: IRA drug rebates are saving seniors “as much as $618 per average dose on 47 prescription drugs.” Reality: Prescription drug prices increased by 2% under Trump, by 5.5% under Biden, and by nearly 6% in November. (WSJ)
Tuesday Links
- 65 bullet points on leftwing antisemitism. There is a reason why socialism and antisemitism were closely aligned in the 20th century: both are variations of collectivism.
- Thinking about dying.
- What does hospital price transparency have to do with community health centers? The former is an excuse for funding the latter.
- Illness can be financially devastating – in the US, but also in Canada and Britain. The reason: It’s not because of medical bills. It’s because of a lack of income from work.
Tuesday Links
- British Medicaid Journal: “The current body of scientific data does not support masking children for protection against COVID-19.”
- How the newspapers are getting life expectancy projections wrong.
- Cigna Removes Prior Authorization for 25% of Medical Services.
- Merrill Matthews explains why seniors are over-paying for drugs.
- Tiny robots made from human cells heal damaged tissue. HT: Tyler