When governments try to stop people from consuming politically disfavored intoxicants, they make consumption of those substances more dangerous by creating a black market in which purity and potency are highly variable and unpredictable….
The alarm about xylazine in fentanyl, which compounds the danger of fatal respiratory depression and may increase the risk of serious and persistent skin infections, is just the latest illustration of this predictable peril.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Insured, But for How Long?
While 12.5% of individuals under 65 are uninsured at a point in time, twice as many—one in four—are uninsured at some point over a 2-y period. Moreover, the risk of losing insurance remained virtually unchanged with the introduction of the landmark ACA. Risk of insurance loss is particularly high for those with health insurance through Medicaid or private exchanges; they have a 20% chance of losing coverage at some point over a 2-y period, compared to 8.5% for those with employer-provided coverage.
Thursday Links
- Arnold Kling on “Price Discrimination Explains Everything,” (including hospital finance). Recommended.
- Biden suspends funding for the Wuhan Lab.
- How Fauci and NIH leaders worked to discredit the lab leak theory.
- Report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic relies on more than 8,000 documents, including emails and other communications, plus nearly 25 hours of witness testimony.
- Bob Moffitt: the Biden administration is stonewalling an attempt to get at the origin of Covid.
- Douglas Hofstadter changes his mind: AI really is a risk. (David Brooks: NYT)
- Woke ideology is invading the mental health professions. (WSJ)
British NHS (“The Envy of the World”) Is Teetering
As it turns 75 this month, the N.H.S., a proud symbol of Britain’s welfare state, is in the deepest crisis of its history: flooded by aging, enfeebled patients; starved of investment in equipment and facilities; and understaffed by doctors and nurses, many of whom are so burned out that they are either joining strikes or leaving for jobs abroad….
More than 7.4 million people in England are waiting for medical procedures, everything from hip replacements to cancer surgery. That is up from 4.1 million before the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020.
Mortality data, exacerbated by long wait times, paints a bleak picture. In 2022, the number of excess deaths rose to one of the highest levels in the last 50 years, and those numbers have kept rising, even as the pandemic has ebbed.