- Should manufacturers be required to disclose the development cost of new drugs? Probably not.
- JCT: At least half of the tax burden in the Manchin/Schumer budget bill will be borne by Americans making less than $400,000, and roughly $17 billion worth of new taxes will fall on those earning less than $200,000.
- Voters like the health care provisions: 77% like Rx price caps and 56% like the extension of ACA health insurance premium subsidies for three more years.
- Go Ask Alice? — the supposed 1971 diary of a white teenage suburbanite who gets slipped LSD in a Coke at a party, then slides into addiction and ruin is a complete myth.
- Study: Lower socioeconomic kids do better if they socialize with higher socioeconomic kids. Did we really need a study to know this?
Category: Policy & Legislation
Why Food Poisoning isn’t More Common
Lately I’ve noticed a fair number of articles on food recalls. For example, I found the following on WebMD:
Aug. 1 Protein Drinks Recalled Over Bacterial Contamination Risk
Lyons Magnus announced a voluntary recall on July 28 of various protein and beverage products over worries they may be contaminated with germs like Cronobacter sakazakii. The announcement identifies 53 affected products, ranging from Oatly Oat Milk to Stumptown Cold Brew Coffee. The complete list of products is available on the FDA website, along with ways to tell if yours is part of the recall.
Nursing Homes Get Aggressive to Collect Unpaid Debts
Kaiser Health News (KHN) and National Public Radio (NPR) ran an article about nursing homes in Upstate New York pursing friends and family to collect on unpaid debts owed by loved ones. Often times there was no obvious financial connection between the person being sued and the person with unpaid debts to the nursing home. One lady interviewed was a sister who had only gone to visit her brother when he was in a nursing home for a couple months. In another case a son helped admit his mother into a nursing home and became the target of lawsuits to pay her bills.
Covid-Chasing Travel Nurse Bubble Burst but Not Going Away
The Wall Street Journal had an article about the falling use of travel nurses. At the peak of the pandemic nurses willing to travel from one hot spot to another could sometimes earn as much as $10,000 per week.
Hospitals across the U.S. have had to dig deep to treat patients during the Covid-19 pandemic as some of the most lucrative parts of their business, elective surgeries, were constantly postponed. The flip side of that has been a bonanza for the companies that helped them keep staffing levels adequate as well as for the brave and flexible people who filled those positions.
By contrast, nurses who stayed in their regular jobs often found themselves working mandatory overtime in understaffed hospitals filled to the brim with Covid patients. When they complained about too many hours, low wages and a lack of personal protection equipment their complaints were often dismissed.