August 27, 2006

Holy Crap

Maybe it's a sign of how jaded I've become, but I thought Over-the-Counter Plan B was a lost cause. Happy to be corrected.

(Via Crooked Timber)

Posted by tony at 9:17 AM | Comments (0)

April 5, 2006

I Don't Need No Hospitals

People (especially my fellow Bostonians) are probably already aware of this, but it's still pretty remarkable that Massachusetts will require residents to have health insurance. While that sounds scary, the structure of the legislation is interesting:

Individuals who can afford private insurance will be penalized on their state income taxes if they do not purchase it. Government subsidies to private insurance plans will allow more of the working poor to buy insurance and will expand the number of children who are eligible for free coverage. Businesses with more than 10 workers that do not provide insurance will be assessed up to $295 per employee per year.
Basically, it seems that a lot of individuals and businesses not paying for insurance will be fined, with those fines going back into insurance. This will then subsidize people who actually can't afford insurance.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about "requiring people who can afford insurance to buy it," but at the very least, this sounds like an interesting experiment. Plus, it sounds like they've been doing they're homework on this issue:

Eric Fehrnstrom, the governor's communications director, said that for those people with incomes above 300 percent of poverty, "our assumption was that these would be mostly single mothers who just did not have the wherewithal to get insurance. It turned out it was mostly young males. In some cases they are making very attractive salaries. These are people who just don't imagine themselves needing care, but of course when they break a leg when they're out bungee jumping they go to the hospital and we end up paying for their care anyway."
Yes, I know the sentiment all too well. I like to think of it as machismo, although I suspect others would just call it being a damned fool.

Posted by tony at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

March 7, 2006

The War on Our Values

No, not the ones Todd posted about below, but an even more startling assault. Courtesy of Lindsay Beyerstein, I'm now informed that it's National Caffeine Awareness Month. But more importantly, she points to an article describing the Caffeine Awareness Alliance and their War on Coffee:

"Most caffeine addicts have no idea that they are addicts. But, with as little as 200 mg of caffeine, you can experience typical addictive symptoms such as irritability, restlessness, tension, insomnia, excitement, and gastrointestinal disturbance," says [CAA founder Marina] Kushner.
I don't know what she's talking about. I'm aware of everything she mentioned, and I'm not convinced in the least. Wait, what does that mean again?

Seriously, though, I'm all for awareness, especially of how much people consume. For example, a little research turned up a piece about a Universty of Florida coffee study on the caffeine content of commercial coffees. The upshot is just that it changest between weak and strong coffee (duh). So if you're trying to be conscious of your intake, you should be wary, watch out, and if you sell coffee, try to let people know how strong you make it. But the highlight of the piece is probably the opinion of Mark Gold, an addiction researcher:

“Caffeine dependence is a non-issue for me because people won’t leave their home for it, won’t mortgage their house for it, won’t choose caffeine over their wife,” said Gold, who recently co-authored a study on coffee’s caffeine content.
Anyway, all this is just bringing home to me the fact that I've been depriving myself of coffee for over a week because of the pathogen which I'm only now saying goodbye to. But my reunion is going to be sweet. Coffee, where have you been all my life?

Cross-posted at my recently revived weblog.

Posted by tony at 11:08 PM | Comments (2)