- Scott Atlas: How the experts got Covid science wrong.
- At least 2 in 5 U.S. adults said they are not willing to pay for 11 of the 12 preventive services currently required to be provided gratis by health insurance regulations. Since none of these services are cost effective for healthy people, that shows people are smarter than the politicians who imposed the regulation.
- The operational cleavage between the US public health and medical care systems inhibited our ability to contain the spread of COVID-19.
- A defense of Sharing health plans.
- On Biden’s plan to increase the Medicare net investment income tax from 3.8 to 5 percent for people earning over $400,000: A tax on capital is a tax on labor, including people who make a lot less than $400,000.
Drugs Ordered from Pharmacies Abroad are Illegal (but Mostly Not Opioids)
Hardly a day goes by but what there’s a news article about opioid overdose deaths. Most deaths are tracked back to Fentanyl. According to police almost all prescription opioid drugs purchased on the street contain Fentanyl. China is thought to be the largest producer of Fentanyl and its precursors. To mitigate the risk of dangerous drugs entering the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) receives funding to inspect prescription drugs arriving in the mail from abroad. According to NBC News:
Wednesday Links
- “The crackdown on [opioid] pain pills replaced legally manufactured, reliably dosed pharmaceuticals with iffy black-market products of unknown provenance and composition. Meanwhile, prohibition fostered the rise of fentanyl as a heroin booster and substitute.”
- Jeffrey Singer testified with the same message. He was the Democrats’ witness!
- Telemedicine is being widely used in Ukraine.
- Paragon: In 2019, New York (state per capita income: $67,366) received $17,145 in federal Medicaid funding per person in poverty, while Alabama (state per capita income: $43,288) received $6,148.
- CBO’s options for reducing health care spending: establishing caps on federal spending for Medicaid; limiting state taxes on providers; reducing the federal Medicaid match rates; increasing Medicare Part B premiums; reducing Medicare Advantage benchmarks; and reducing the tax subsidies for employment-based insurance, etc. What about a free market for health care?
Is Medical Debt Bad? Sometimes; Sometimes Not
Millions of people struggle with medical indebtedness. Millions more are thought to forgo care or put off treatment, hoping to avoid medical bills. The nonprofit media, Kaiser Health News, published extensive surveys on medical debt in 2022. According to National Public Radio (NPR):