Legalizing Organ Sales
This article appeared onSubStack on May 25, 2023.Organ sales are illegal in the United States and most other countries (Iran is a partial exception). The National Organ Transplantation Act of 1984states, “it shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce.” The penalty for breaking the law is a fine of $50,000 or up to five years in prison , or both.In Libertarian Land, organ markets are legal. This makes everyone better off.Consider first kidneys. People have ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 25, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey Miron Source Type: blogs
Exercise Reduces the Risk of Parkinson's Disease
Maintaining physical fitness remains one of the most proven approaches to modestly slow the progression of aging. The large study noted here provides an example of the long-term benefits of exercise. The scientists observe a reduction in Parkinson's disease incidence in more active individuals. This is a pattern observed in near all age-related conditions, a good argument for putting in the time and effort needed to remain physically fit and active as one moves into later life.
The study included 95,354 female participants, mostly teachers, with an average age of 49 who did not have Parkinson's disease at the star...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 25, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
California Tries Charging for Electricity Based on Income
Marc JoffeIn California, private sector innovation is giving way to public sector experimentation. From the state that pioneered special gasoline formulations, cap ‐and‐trade, and natural gas bans, we now have income‐based electricity billing. While this idea may seem like a reasonable response to the problem of moderate‐income families being priced out of the state, a better approach would be to tackle the underlying causes of high energ y prices.A2022 state law instructed the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) to replace a flat monthly charge for the fixed costs of providing electricity w...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 22, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Marc Joffe Source Type: blogs
La Sombrita, or, How to Fail at Infrastructure
Paul MatzkoLos Angeles spent $200,000 on La Sombrita ( ‘“in the shade”), a bus stop shade/light structure that provides littleshade or light. It has been almost too easy to criticize its design, the token DEI framing given to the project, how most of the funds went to a global junket for the designers, or the fact that city officials held a tone deaf celebratory press conference for its unveiling. Would this “make waiting for the bus at night [feel]safer” to you?But La Sombrita isn ’t really the problem. Rather, its failures are symptoms of its designers trying to work around deeper, structural problems ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 22, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Paul Matzko Source Type: blogs
5 Ways to Close the Cloud Security Gaps in Healthcare
The following is a guest article by TJ Houske, Senior Vice President of Technology, Operations, and Engineering at OTAVA
Ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations doubled in the last five years, according to a new study by JAMA Health Forum. The most common victims have been health clinics. This year’s Ponemon report also reinforces the fact that ransomware continues to impact patient safety. Its survey of hospital IT and security leaders found that significantly more respondents said that ransomware attacks increased complications from medical procedures. While these issues are clearly serious, healthcare orga...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - May 15, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System IT Infrastructure and Dev Ops Security and Privacy Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure Solutions Cybersecurity Cybersecurity Preparedness data security Disaster Recovery Source Type: blogs
The incredible journey of pregnancy: endurance, resilience, and unconditional love
“Pregnancy is the longest duration and highest energy expenditure that humans can experience. Mothers probably aren’t surprised by this.” -Herman Pontzer How fast you can run depends on why, for how long, and, more importantly, the drive that sets the purpose for why you are running in the first place. In all emergencies, trying to
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The incredible journey of pregnancy: endurance, resilience, and unconditional love originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 13, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Mukaila Kareem, DPT Tags: Conditions Orthopedics Source Type: blogs
Repeal the Debt Ceiling
This article appeared onSubStack on May 12, 2023.Unless Congress cuts spending or raises taxes in the near future, the federal government will hit its debt ceiling later this summer. At that point the United States will either default or pursue “extraordinary measures,” such as minting a trillion dollarcoin.President Biden wants a “clean” increase in the ceiling; Republicans want a substantial cut in spending in exchange for raising the limit. In all likelihood, the two sides will appear to make no progress until the last second before default; they will then jointly announce a compromise that both sides portray...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 12, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey Miron Source Type: blogs
In an Ideal World, How Much Would We Spend on Health Care? – Part 1
BY BEN WHEATLEY
We have heard it said before, and it is no longer shocking to say, that in 2021 the United States spent $4.3 trillion on health care. To put this gaudy number in some perspective, we measure it as a share of our economy and report that health care comprised 18.3% of our gross domestic product. CMS projects that health care will approach 20% of GDP in coming years—one-fifth of everything we buy and sell in this country.
In a recent report, the Health Affairs Council on Health Care Spending and Value said that “it is unclear what percentage of GDP would represent the ideal level to devote to healt...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 11, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Ben Wheatley Health care spending medical debt Patent Source Type: blogs
In an Ideal World, How Much Would We Spend on Health Care?
BY BEN WHEATLEY
We have heard it said before, and it is no longer shocking to say, that in 2021 the United States spent $4.3 trillion on health care. To put this gaudy number in some perspective, we measure it as a share of our economy and report that health care comprised 18.3% of our gross domestic product. CMS projects that health care will approach 20% of GDP in coming years—one-fifth of everything we buy and sell in this country.
In a recent report, the Health Affairs Council on Health Care Spending and Value said that “it is unclear what percentage of GDP would represent the ideal level to devote to h...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 11, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Ben Wheatley Health care spending medical debt Patent Source Type: blogs
Amid Wave of Fed Criticism, Cato Study Finds Fed Has Been Historically Ineffective at Managing Inflation
Jai KediaRecentGallup polls have found that public confidence in Fed chair, Jerome Powell, is at an all ‐time low, with only 36% of respondents indicating a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence that the Fed chair would right the economy. This low point follows waves of criticism fromex ‐ andpotential Presidents along with current President Joe Biden placing theFed at the forefront of combating thepost ‐Covid inflationary spike. Combined with a 2022 survey that shows 74% of U.S. voters believe the Fed has “a lot of control” or “some control” over inflation, it is clear why the Fed has fo...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 10, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jai Kedia Source Type: blogs
School Districts Sue Over the “Nuisance” of Online Speech
Walter OlsonI ’ve got a newopinion piece at Ricochet about a particularly disturbing new lawsuit campaign:According toeducation site The 74, at least eleven school districts around the country have sued the owners of such platforms as Snap, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok seeking financial compensation for the “increased mental health services and training they’ve ‘been forced’ to establish” as a consequence of student use of social media.… Cash demands aside, the schools say they want to negotiate a settlement with the platforms to change how they operate.The cited article is from March, and I ’m told ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 10, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Walter Olson Source Type: blogs
Aiming for Health Equity
The following is a guest article by Hakim Yadi, PhD OBE, Co-Founder and CEO at Closed Loop Medicine
Healthcare has historically taken a ‘one size fits all’ approach, which misses the ability to treat all patients as effectively and equitably as possible. Consequently, personalized medicine where treatments are better tailored to a patient has become an aspiration of the modern healthcare system. However, when we look at existing medicines used today, drug therapy is rarely dose optimized for the individual, with most therapies and medical devices approved based on overall safety and efficacy investigated in large-scale...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - April 24, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Analytics/Big Data C-Suite Leadership Health IT Company Healthcare IT Closed Loop Medicine Digital Healthcare Hakim Yadi PhD OBE Health Equity Hypertension Patient Health Outcomes Personalized Care Personalized Medicine Racial Disp Source Type: blogs
Lobbying Turns Green
David BoazI don ’t mean to keep writing the same article about lobbying and special interests over and over. But the federal government keeps creating more and more opportunities for special interests to hire lobbyists. This weekThe Economist writes,with up to $800bn in clean ‐energy handouts now up for grabs over the coming decade, …The energy industry as a whole spent nearly $300m last year on lobbying, the most since 2013 (see chart 1). Big oil and electric utilities, which had been reducing their spending on influence ‐seeking before 2020, haveramped it up again; spending is growing in line with that...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 19, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
Expensing Is Key in Any Pro ‐Growth Tax Package
Adam N. MichelAs Congress searches for policies to meet our current economic challenges, maintaining full expensing —which has begun to phase out—should be top of the list. Full expensing protects business investment from the costs of inflation and supports economic growth by reducing barriers to new investments.Expensing (also called 100 percent bonus depreciation) allows businesses to deduct the full cost of new investments in the year they are made. Without expensing, investment costs must be deducted over time. For example, if a farmer buys a new combine and can only use one-fifth of what he paid to offset revenues...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 19, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Adam N. Michel Source Type: blogs
The Tyranny of Prosecutors
Clark NeilyAmong the most chilling lines of the 20th century was when Josef Stalin ’s chief of secret police Lavrenty Beria sought to assure his boss that literally anyone could be convicted and purged by boasting, “You show me the man, and I will find you the crime. ” Today, few American prosecutors would make that same boast (at least out loud), but they certainly could. Just ask Donald Trump.Is Trump a crook? Probably. Has he shown consistent disdain for norms throughout his professional and political career, including legal norms like honoring contracts, paying taxes, and truth in advertising? Absolutel...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 7, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Clark Neily Source Type: blogs
