- Socialized medicine by stealth: Medicaid rolls during the pandemic have swelled by 24 million—a 34% increase—while two million more adults have enrolled in ObamaCare exchange plans.
- Were Democrats being “racist” when they left 2.2 million (disproportionately Black) poor people without health insurance while giving subsidies to high-income (disproportionately white) people. This is consistent with the history of social insurance.
- Covid Vaccine backlash: “10 percent of those vaccinated said they wish they hadn’t done so, while 15 percent of adults said they have been diagnosed with a new condition by a medical practitioner weeks or months after the first dose.”
- Study: Mandatory paid sick leave reduces ER visits. If so, employers and employees should be able to voluntarily adopt it until the marginal benefit equals the marginal cost. Duh!
Category: Policy & Legislation
Finally: FDA to Allow OTC Hearing Aids without a Prescription
On Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally cleared the way for over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. Yes, this is a “no-brainer”, and the most obvious question is: why did it take so long? The law allowing the FDA to approve OTC hearing aids was passed in five years ago, in August 2017.
Under the new rule, people with mild to moderate hearing loss should be able to buy hearing aids online and in retail stores as soon as October, without being required to see a doctor for an exam to get a prescription.
Tuesday Links – 16 August 2022
- Public-health communication around monkeypox has been an orgy of euphemism and wokespeak, misleading and baffling if you don’t understand what isn’t being said.
- Kids going crazy: “Between 2016 and 2020, there were significant increases in children’s diagnosed anxiety and depression.”
- Financial therapy integrates financial and emotional wellness. But is it health care?
- Birx: pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna are to blame for thousands of deaths because their refusal to pursue a “compassionate use authorization” for the COVID-19 vaccines led to a delay which directly impacted nursing home residents.
Is TikTok Addictive Like Caffeine and Cocaine?
Perhaps Big Social Media is the next Big Tobacco lawsuit for states to pursue settlements to bolster state coffers. Proposed legislation that would allow prosecutors to sue social media companies after kids became hooked on their products failed to pass out of committee in California. According to The LA Times:
California lawmakers on Thursday rejected a proposal that could have forced some popular social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to pay fines for using features they know can harm children.
The bill would have let the state attorney general or other local prosecutors sue social media companies for as much as $250,000 per violation for knowingly using features that can cause children to become addicted to their products-type.