Category: Interesting Links

Wireless Medicine Means Better Quality, and Other Links

iPhone medicine: it’s cheaper, faster and maybe better. (video)

Controversy over obesity studies. HT: Tyler Cowen.

How to keep the NSA from listening to you phone calls. HT: David Henderson.

Rand Paul makes fun of the new ICD-10 codes. (video)

Jun 10, 2013 | 11 comments | by John Goodman

Watson as Big Brother, and Other Links

IBM’s Watson is the proto-type for the NSA’s monitoring of billions of phone calls and other data.

“Denmark is the most civic-minded, egalitarian, free market-oriented, and happiest place on Earth.”

Why we need the TSA: “After all, if airplanes were no more secure than city buses then we’d see terrorists blowing up airplanes about as often as they blow up city buses.”

Jun 10, 2013 | 13 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Big brother is listening to your cell phone.

The more Americans participate in their political system, the angrier and more disillusioned they become.

58 percent of Americans say we are still in a recession.

Study: smokers cost employers $5,800 per smoker per year.

Too much Facebook can lead to marital cheating, breakup and divorce.

Jun 06, 2013 | 13 comments | by John Goodman

Reinhart vs. Rogoff, and Other Links

Kotlikoff: The real problem with Reinhart and Rogoff: they are not measuring the right debt.

Henderson: California has a budget surplus only because it’s underfunding teachers’ pensions.

Two-thirds of the uninsured may not enroll under ObamaCare.

Jun 04, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

A new observation on a seven-year old study: insurance doesn’t have much effect on whether patients receive recommended care.

Opting for surgery on a Friday or over a weekend results in increased mortality.

Head of the IRS went to the White House 118 times ― more than twice as often as the Secretary of HHS.

May 31, 2013 | 15 comments | by John Goodman

Medical Device Manufacturers Not Paying Their Share, and Other Links

Surprise: medical device manufacturers are passing the (ObamaCare) device tax on to consumers. (The ones the president promised not to tax?)

Is immigration good for Medicare?

Another argument for buying across state lines: It appears increasingly likely that just one insurer ― Anthem BlueCross BlueShield ― will offer plans in New Hampshire’s health insurance exchange.

May 31, 2013 | 14 comments | by John Goodman

Mental Disorders on the Rise, and Other Links

Could as many as one in every five children have a mental disorder?

Where the healthiest seniors live: Minnesota (1), Vermont (2), New Hampshire (3), Massachusetts (4) and Iowa (5).

Where the least healthy seniors live: Mississippi (50), Oklahoma (49), Louisiana (48), West Virginia (47) and Arkansas (46).

Scott Sumner defends Milton Friedman.

May 29, 2013 | 14 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Fast food eaters underestimate the calories they are consuming.

“A multimillionaire president nominated a billionaire who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns, and he sent her to be confirmed by the millionaires’ club that is the U.S. Senate.”

Smart phones have killed the three-day weekend.

When patients get more involved in their care, the bills are often higher.

May 29, 2013 | 10 comments | by John Goodman

Reinhart and Rogoff vs. Krugman, and Other Links

Reinhart and Rogoff respond to Paul Krugman’s “spectacularly uncivil behavior.”

Krugman’s basic honesty challenged by David Warsh (HT: Greg Mankiw) and Jim Hamilton. “This one surely cinches the case that he should never win a Pulitzer Prize.”

Small businesses seeking to ward off key health-law provisions — at least for a while — are planning to start their health plan contracts in December, rather than January.

Should health insurance pay for weight loss surgery?

May 28, 2013 | 11 comments | by John Goodman

Family Medical Costs Still Rising, and Other Links

The typical cost to cover a family of four now exceeds $22,000, including the amount paid in insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs, according to Milliman.

Can dyslexia be good for you?

An iPhone application lets users check levels of blood, protein and other substances in their urine. (I’m trying to imagine how that would work?)

May 24, 2013 | 18 comments | by John Goodman