- Kaiser: the average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health insurance coverage was $23,968 in 2023.
- Study: Fentanyl “accounts for 90% of all opioid deaths… We show that a substantial amount of fentanyl smuggling occurs via legal trade flows.”
- In 2021, the U.S. spent $1,432 per capita on pharmaceuticals compared to only $517 in the UK. One reason: the value of a statistical life in the UK is pegged at £20,000 – £30,000, compared to $100,000 – $150,000 in the US.
- Headline I wish hadn’t seen: New York City will pay homeowners up to $395,00 to build an extra dwelling in their garage or basement to help ease the housing shortage.
- Gene Steuerle’s NYT piece on how much seniors get from the government’s elderly entitlement programs is no longer behind a paywall. Fascinating graphs.
Category: Wednesday Links
Wednesday Links
- When a key employee leaves: OpenAI is in open chaos.
- More on Sam Altman: he believed his company’s products could kill us all.
- Social Security’s Widows Scam: Some 13,000 widows have been effectively defrauded out of over $130 million dollars.
- 59 percent of Americans say money can buy happiness. How much money? Around $1.2 million.
- Why choice of a doctor matters: Between the top and bottom quartiles of spending, 79% of the difference is due to utilization and 19% is due to a difference in prices.
Wednesday Links
- Life expectancy for men in the U.S. falls to 73 years — six years less than for women.
- Noah Smith lauds Singapore but neglects to mention Medisave accounts.
- What discount rate should be used in evaluating changes in health policies?
- Should medical screenings be based on cost/benefit analysis or on the patient’s willingness to pay?
- A tribute to Vernon Smith – long time friend of the Goodman Institute.
- Does the case for a free society depend on the existence of free will?
Wednesday Links
- Why Medicare’s negotiated prices may not help patients. Formularies, step therapy and more.
- Blood supply has steadily decreased for over a decade, reaching critically low levels in the past two years.
- Another study on site neutral payments: Medicare Part B spending would have been $7,750 less for a hypothetical breast cancer patient.
- Opinion: Bidenomics is driving up the cost of health care.