I once read a comment from a doctor who said when he sees seniors who are on a dozen pharmaceutical drugs, half are to treat the side effects of the other half. What effect can too many medications have on seniors? You would be amazed ..read more

Poll: Americans overwhelming support polygenic embryo selection for serious disease, but by 45% to 35% oppose selecting for IQ.  How the father’s diet affects the health of the descendants. Why do the richest states get the most Medicaid money? Why are so many scientists around the world engaged in “gain of function” research? Because they can get money to do it. Why progressives should support free trade. Cato study: Occupational licensing disproportionately burdens minority workers ..read more

It did not have to be this way. The COVID-19 pandemic cost American citizens their lives, their livelihoods, education, mental health, reputations and, ultimately, civil and religious freedoms. “The U.S. accounts for less than 5% of the world’s population, but more than 25% of total COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, and it currently ranks among the top 10 countries in COVID-19-related deaths per capita,” wrote the authors of  2023 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And for all that, we have government to thank.   ..read more

I wrote about pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) extensively in the past. PBMs are the middlemen who manage pharmacy benefits for employee health plans, Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies. The concept is simple: PBMs leverage buying power to extract discounts from drug makers. These discounts are (in theory) passed on to consumers and health plan clients. PBMs also create drug formularies and adjudicate drug claims ..read more

At the center of Biden's proposal is the Bayh-Dole Act, a landmark 1980 law that allowed federally funded professors and universities to patent their research discoveries and license the patents to private-sector firms for further development. It incentivized and thereby greatly increased the amount of innovations coming out of universities. Source:  Tomas J. Philipson at RealClear Health ..read more

See what the bill would do in this post. Source: US Senate HELP Committee ..read more

David Friedman on tariffs. Excellent AHA opposes Biden's tariffs on medical equipment, which create $650 million in increased costs to the U.S. medical industry. Arizona police arrested a woman for serving home-cooked meals to the hungry and the needy. Rather than education, welfare, or nutrition programs, three tax provisions are now the largest category of federal support for children – and over the years they have been on a perpetual rollercoaster. More on using foreign trained doctors to solve our physician shortage problem ..read more

New research has identified proteins, found in a single drop of blood, that may hold clues to our health and the diseases we’re likely to develop years into the future ..read more

A report by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) estimates that treating even half of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with obesity would cost $166 billion per year, nearly the cost of total spending on all prescription drugs in 2022 ($175 billion). Source: STAT (gated ..read more

Kamal Harris’ health plan: Medicare for all, with private insurers participating – like Medicare Advantage. Surprise: low voter turnout benefits Democrats, not Republicans. “The likeliest voters are Democrats, while the ones who are less likely to vote are Republicans.” Message to the White House: inflation isn’t caused by greed. (WaPo) Estimating the cost of our bureaucratic health insurance payment system. What happens when you give people $1,000 a month with no string attached? They spend it. They also work less. “For every $1 of free money received, participants’ earnings dropp ..read more