Impact of Medicaid Expansion on Smoking

Introduction

In 2010, amidst the backdrop of a nation grappling with widespread healthcare disparities, the United States took a bold step by enacting the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This landmark legislation aimed to revolutionize healthcare access for millions of Americans, many of whom had previously been underinsured due to prohibitive costs or lack of options. Central to the ACA’s mission was the expansion of Medicaid, the government-funded health insurance program for low-income individuals, which would …

Cannon Fodder: Rising HCW Dissent During the Pandemic

Rising Physician Dissent

A few weeks ago, after suffering from chills, coughing, a fever, and losing her sense of smell, a nurse I knew tested positive for the COVID-19, the new coronavirus at the center of the recent pandemic.

She works at a large hospital nearby, and likely contracted the disease after her direct exposure working with coronavirus patients. For a little over a week, she stayed home, self-isolating from the rest of her family …

The Index Card (Helaine Olen)

Finished reading 'The Index Card' about a week ago, per recommendation of my high school econ teacher. Great book for an introductory overview of personal finance!

It really inspired me to start paying attention to my money. I've started recording all my expenses and money inflows. At the end of the year, I plan to look through my list and determine how big my emergency fund needs to be—and then I'll try setting up an …

Banker to the Poor (Muhammad Yunus)

Once, in English class, we were asked to write down what our dreams were. One of the dreams I wrote down was that I wanted to figure out how to run a charity organization so that it could be profitable—that is, to somehow make charity profitable for the donors. If this was possible, it would be revolutionary to the charity industry, boosting donor participation to incredible levels.

My classmates laughed at the idea, which was …

Nudge (Richard Thaler)

When I first got this book, I thought it was going to be a reasonably short read. It took me far longer than I anticipated, in part because it's quite dense and long, and in part because I was pretty lazy about my reading for the last month or so. I really need to start reading more! I have a lot of books I want to finish before summer ends, after all!

The focus of …

My Mission?

A soliloquy about the meaning of life...

I was drafting the mission statement for BinaryHeart (which recently became incorporated! Woo-hoo!), when I thought for a moment: Does my life have a mission statement? I suppose that is exactly what my English teacher is asking us to ponder with our 'Meaning of Life' project...

To be frank, I was originally planning to write my MoL about how it is somewhat useless to think about the question …

Grit (Angela Duckworth)

I read this book per recommendation, and I have to thank the person who recommended it. When I first decided to read it, to be honest, I was somewhat skeptical of how novel or useful the book would be: I expected it to just be another book preaching the importance of perseverance and hard work, valuable—but well-trodden—wisdom. Before reading this book, I thought I knew what “grit” was. Turns out I didn’t.

Duckworth’s definition of …