A David Lynch movie about an odyssey of an old man riding a lawnmower? Based on a true story? And it was a Disney movie? And it was somehow rated G? And it’s amazing? And I just learned about it yesterday? Life is full of surprises.
Aaron Schwartz
@aschwartz.bsky.social
MD-PhD professing at the University of Pennsylvania. Health, economics, and health economics.
Forthcoming in AEJ: Economic Policy: "Health Insurance and Access to Care for the Near Elderly" by Michael Anderson, Carlos Dobkin, Nicole Maestas, and Liam Rose.
Health Insurance and Access to Care for the Near Elderly
(Forthcoming Article) - The vast majority of Americans become eligible for Medicare at age 65. This results in 7 percent of the near elderly transitioning from uninsurance to insurance and 60 percent switching from some source of insurance to Medicare. We develop an extension of two-sample IV to estimate the effect of uninsurance on access to care while accounting for the effects of the other transitions. We find that not having insurance results in much lower probabilities of having a medical provider or receiving inpatient care. The foregone hospitalizations are for life-threatening emergent conditions and elective surgeries that increase quality of life.
aeaweb.org
When the AHRQ cancellations started, no one was giving the public a clear picture of what was being lost. My team built one. This is research that makes care safer and more affordable. Americans deserve to know what's happening to it. Researchinterrupted.academyhealth.org
Research Interrupted: Canceled AHRQ Grants | AcademyHealth
When health care research stops, the answers stop with it. Explore AcademyHealth's interactive tracker on canceled AHRQ research grants and lost funding.
researchinterrupted.academyhealth.org
Now I can show this to my kids when I randomly let one of them choose the car song. These lemmas should satisfy them.
Econometrica@ecmaeditors.bsky.social · last wk.Random Priority—a popular no-transfer allocation mechanism—is efficient, fair, & simple to participate in. Is it the only mechanism with these properties? Marek Pycia @econ.uzh.ch and Peter Troyan, UVA Economics, answer this long-standing question in the positive. buff.ly/zlSjmC0
Many people achieve notoriety for fleeting achievements, bad behavior, or seemingly no reason at all. Yet 3/4 of Americans can’t name a living scientist. Can’t we do better?
John Mullahy@johnmullahy.bsky.social · 2w agoWow
New CBO paper: every $1 of federal R&D returns ~$3–$4 of GDP in present value over 30 years www.nber.org/papers/w35472
! First FDA approval for an oral PCSK9 inhibitor. www.fda.gov/drugs/news-e...
FDA Approves First Oral Therapy that Inhibits Proprotein Convertase Su
FDA has approved Lipfendra. Read more.
fda.gov
I am begging you all to just tell me what to do with the aspirin
NEJM.org@nejm.org · 3w agoAmong patients with multivessel coronary artery disease who were in stable condition 1 year after stenting, an additional year of DAPT led to a lower risk of ischemic events than aspirin alone, without increased bleeding. Full DAPT-MVD trial results: https://nej.md/4wLDIox
The Odyssey was great. What a high degree of difficulty to make this film seem real and immersive.
My favorite coauthor wrote a lovely piece in JCO. It’s about navigating the challenges of being a new attending cancer surgeon while her dad declined and died from ALS. ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/...
Taking Responsibility
ascopubs.org
Stay tuned. I hope to have a paper coming out soon on this topic. Funded by @arnoldventures.bsky.social, this study has the longest list of authors, and the most person-hours of research effort, of any I’ve work on.
Dan Diamond@ddiamond.bsky.social · 3w agoNew: Trump officials, having criticized Medicare’s billing-code system, are now asking the public to help change it. The American Medical Association’s CPT codes are a “monopoly,” the administration says, calling for suggested fixes or even alternatives.
The great hall at the National Academy of Sciences. The domed ceiling reads: “To science: pilot of industry, conqueror of disease, multiplier of the harvest, explorer of the universe, revealer of nature’s laws, eternal guide to truth”
Tragic and avoidable. I lived in this spot and bike commuted often. Based on the crash location, she was probably killed seconds after leaving the Southwest corridor, a protected bike path.
The Boston Globe@bostonglobe.com · 4w agoA cycling advocate and transportation planner for the city of Boston was identified as the cyclist who was struck and killed in a crash near Roxbury Crossing this morning.
Privatizing Medicaid in Louisiana reduced total program spending by 5.6 percent, primarily through management of pharmacy benefits and lower prices for outpatient services, say researchers at @pse.bsky.social, @utaustin.bsky.social, and @yalesph.bsky.social. #econsky www.aeaweb.org/research/cha...
Privatizing Medicaid
A natural experiment in Louisiana shows private plans can cut drug costs without reducing observed quality.
aeaweb.org
Our annual award recognizing the best PhD dissertation on employment-related issues is still taking submissions! All academic disciplines are welcome, as long as it has a major employment and policy focus. The deadline is July 20th. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4vJxVQa #econsky, #fundsocsci
Dissertation Award | Upjohn Institute
bit.ly
Open call for papers, Assessing the US Medical Innovation System. Conference to be held in Cambridge, MA on February 5, 2027. Submit papers by 11:59pm EDT on November 2, 2026. More information: www.nber.org/calls-papers...
Sad to learn that my 1st-4th grade science teacher, Peter Grove, has died. I’m heartened that the Inquirer printed this lovely obituary documenting his broad and lasting impact. He was singularly inspiring and I remember many of his lessons like they were yesterday. www.inquirer.com/obituaries/p...
Peter Grove, award-winning science educator and lifelong environmentalist, has died at 82
He arrived in Philadelphia in 1972 and spent the next 45 years teaching science, horticulture, and civic responsibility to students young and old.
inquirer.com
What is the highest number of reviewers you’ve witnessed for a paper? For me, 8 (medical journal, general interest).
It’s here, it’s finally hereeeee!!!! This paper is in the AER because of two people: my co-author @atheendar.bsky.social, and our copy-editor @sameyler.bsky.social.
AEA Journals@aeajournals.bsky.social · last mo.Forthcoming in the AER: "Rationing by Race" by Manasvini Singh and Atheendar Venkataramani.
Obermeyer et al. (Nature, yesterday) didn’t even analyze their main dataset until their paper was accepted.
Thousands of biomedical studies are stuck in limbo as NIH drags out renewals months after annual budgets expire. Since 2025, the rate of overdue renewals has TRIPLED. This leaves scientists unable to plan, keep staff employed, or maintain long-term research. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #NIH 🧪
Overdue Grant Renewals at NIH and AHRQ – Grant Witness
The government’s delays renewing in-progress research are leaving researchers in limbo.
grant-witness.us
Often, Mendelian randomization research doesn’t examine the actual Mendelian natural experiment. This does! Very cool.
AEA Journals@aeajournals.bsky.social · last mo.Forthcoming in AER: Insights: "Nature, Nurture, and Socioeconomic Outcomes: New Evidence from Sib Pairs and Molecular Genetic Data" by Markel, Ahlskog, Ebeltoft, Mõttus, Oskarsson, Vainik, Ystrom, and Beauchamp.
When estimating disparities, an important question is what factors to adjust for and how. We might want to avoid “controlling away” disparities with socioeconomic factors like insurance source. The solution is not to keep those factors out of the model…
JAMA@jama.com · 2mo agoAdjusted analysis demonstrates lower controller inhaler use in Asian, Black, and Hispanic adults with #Asthma than in White adults, despite accounting for clinical, socioeconomic, and health care access factors. ja.ma/4ektuoP
Shabbat shalom and happy Juneteenth. Let us drink the next cup to the freedom of all mankind.
Bob Blendon, Harvard health policy expert and pollster, has died. via @joycefr.bsky.social #Medsky #politics #healthpolicy #healthlaw #Medicare #Medicaid
Bob Blendon, an Expert in Health Policy and Polling, Dies
He was an 'innovator in research on public opinion,' says Paul Ginsburg
medpagetoday.com