- How anti-obesity drugs could make us wealthier: “An average female obese woman earns around 10 percent less than a normal-weight woman in the States. Just taking that, imagine we cut obesity levels in the US to Scandinavian levels going from 40 percent of the population to 20 percent of the population. Assuming that that then increases salaries for those who will get out of obesity by 10 percent. That translates more or less into a two percent increase in US GDP.”
- Can AI run Medicaid?
- To save Social Security: Instead of more taxes for the rich, cut their benefit payments.
- Key to a happy life: marriage matters more than career. This is the opposite of what most young people think. (NYT)
- Why is Medicare charging researchers large fees to access its data?
- Are clubhouses the solution to serious mental illness?
Category: Saturday Links
Saturday Links
- The top 1% now pay almost half of all federal income taxes – the highest in history.
- Why isn’t UV light everywhere?
- Bad news on alcohol: binge drinking affects microbe in your gut and makes you crave alcohol even more.
- More bad news on drinking and the microbiome. (NYT: gated)
- Trump tax cuts: the rich are now paying more than ever.
- Can recessions be good for our health?
Saturday Links
- Deficit spending: Trump was bad, but Biden has been worse.
- Cause of inflation: Trump bears some blame, but again, Biden has been worse.
- “The Biden administration wants to throw a grenade into this carefully balanced ecosystem for research, development, and commercialization of a new medical technology.”
- We may be able to use CRISPR to treat rare inflammatory diseases.
Saturday Links
- More evidence that genes trump social factors in explaining behavioral outcomes.
- CDC: The new Covid vaccine is 54% effective.
- Len Schaeffer:
The level of variation in our health care system is unbelievable. You could be hospitalized for nine days in New York and for three days in California with the same diagnosis—and those differences would have no impact on outcomes. There is no other industry in the world that uses so many different approaches to the same thing and in which these differences don’t relate to better results. (Article is interesting throughout)
- “Imagine an integrated device that includes an insulin pump, a glucometer, and software that uses photos from a smartphone to carb count your food and dose insulin… The FDA’s regulatory framework is ill-equipped to deal [with this].”
- Is there a relationship between Medicaid expansion and the opioid crisis?
- The US has 36 million Health Savings Accounts, covering 72 million people.