Category: Interesting Links

More Adults Caring for Elderly Relatives, and Other Links

Four in ten U.S. adults are now caring for a sick or elderly family member.

Human organs could be grown in animals and then harvested within a year.

Federalism lives: about four-fifths of the states now have enacted local laws that directly reject or ignore federal laws on marijuana use, gun control, health insurance requirements and identification standards for driver’s licenses.

6 percent of physicians in the cash-only business in 2013, up from 4 percent in 2012.

Jun 21, 2013 | 10 comments | by John Goodman

The A.M.A. on Obesity, and Other Links

Is obesity a disease?

Study: patients with caregivers are more likely to be readmitted.

Chris Jacobs fact checks the ObamaCare ads.

One more reason to take an aspirin a day: cancer.

70% of Americans are on prescription drugs.

Jun 20, 2013 | 17 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Can computer viruses affect your pacemaker?

Coming: major shortage of primary care physicians.

At $112,000 per patient, Los Angeles leads the nation on spending in the last two years of life.

There is a 95% chance you are washing your hands incorrectly. (For males, its worse.)

ObamaCare will share personal health info with federal, state agencies.

Jun 17, 2013 | 10 comments | by John Goodman

Silver Plan vs. Bronze Plan Deductibles, and Other Links

ObamaCare insurance: deductible for the silver plan is $2,000; for the bronze plan it’s $5,000. (Karen Davis must be in mourning.)

The less you know, the easier it is to solve this puzzle.

Personalized medicine comes to psychiatry.

60% of Massachusetts doctors will not meet state electronic record mandate.

Denmark’s fat tax harms the economy and produces little change in behavior.

Jun 17, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Most designated drivers are drunk.

Canadians have access to fewer new medicines than other countries.

Is Kaiser trying to avoid sick people in California’s ObamaCare health insurance exchange?

The U.S. economy is less open than 37 other countries.

Did the IRS seize 60 million medical records in California, including every state judge as well as “prominent citizens in the world of entertainment, business and government, from all walks of life”?

Jun 14, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Not Enough Spending on Cancer Drugs, and Other Links

Scott Gottlieb: We’re not spending enough on cancer drugs.

Is this an argument for forced sterilization?

Unauthorized immigrants account for only 1.4 percent of U.S. medical spending.

Report overstates the economic benefits of the human genome project: It counts inputs as outputs.

Jun 13, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Medicare could have saved nearly $1 billion in 2011 if it had paid the lowest rate negotiated by private insurers for lab tests.

Patients’ most frequent hospital complaint: noise.

I’m not sure whether this is good or bad: Brand-name drug use in Medicare was 2 to 3 times that in the VA.

Jun 11, 2013 | 14 comments | by John Goodman

Walking vs. Running to Improve Health, and Other Links

Runners are thiner than walkers; but walking may be better for heart disease.

Good news from Europe: Each generation of Britons is more libertarian than the last and Sweden is leading every other country in privatizing health care.

A free market hospital — in the United States!

Jun 11, 2013 | 15 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Two online health calculators designed by federal officials to help states and employers comply with ObamaCare mandates are riddled with so many flaws that users are abandoning them.

Another pay-for-performance failure.(HT: Jason Shafrin)

The government also knows what you buy.

Jun 10, 2013 | 16 comments | by John Goodman

Rate of Return on College Degrees, and Other Links

Is a college degree worth what it costs?

How much would we save if every doctor worked for free?

For ex-Yazuka members: prosthetics to replace severed fingers. HT: Tyler Cowen

Henderson on Keynes. Unusual and interesting.

Jun 10, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman