Years ago I had a great primary care physician. One day I drove to his office and saw him assisting an elderly man walk to his car. Dr. Ingram could have asked his nurse to assist the patient. He could even have ignored the frail patient’s unsteady gait and let him fend for himself. Yet, Dr. Ingram personally helped his elderly patient make it to his car. That impressed me immensely. Not only did he treat the man’s health complaint, he made sure his patient got safely out of the office and on his way home. Nobody paid him for that, he did it out of his desire to help people.
Category: Consumer-Driven Health Care
Friday Links
- Sen. Cassidy white paper: a one-size-fits all approach for regulating AI will not work and will stifle innovation.
- Cato paper: Remove barriers to primary care practitioners prescribing methadone.
- AMA criticizes the FDA for not banning menthol cigarettes more rapidly. Hard to understand this. If menthol is not harmful and it’s only vice is that of appealing more to Black youth than White youth, isn’t banning it rank discrimination?
- Study: Biden boosted food stamps by 27%, without regard to income, and that caused 2.4 million Americans to leave work.
- Britain has a minister for loneliness. (NYT)
- Fewer than one in five nursing home residents with Covid received antiviral treatment during the pandemic. (JAMA)
Thursday Links
- Research bias: Gender disparities generally matter only if they work against women.
- AI can even reportedly “taste wine” with 95% accuracy.
- There is “no money to be made in finding ways to reduce costs in health care.” Peter Coy reviews Why Not Better and Cheaper?: Healthcare and Innovation.
- Judge rules Louisiana cops can be sued for raiding the home of a man who joked about pandemic on Facebook.
- Physician quality regulation: There are more than 2,200 metrics and we have spent more than over $1.3 billion measuring them.
Portland Back-Peddles on Public Drug Use
There is an odd theory that making illicit drugs easier to use will make them safer, such as needle exchanges and safe injection sites. Other reformers argue that decriminalizing small quantities will avoid court costs and incarceration costs. Moreover, the proponents of the above theories believe the policy known as The War on Drugs has been ineffective and even racist.
There is another theory, one that is grounded in reason, common sense as well as backed by empirical testing, that demand curves are downward sloping. Similar there is an economic truism that posits if governments wish to encourage some activity, then subsidize it. If government wishes to discourage some activity, then tax it.