argonaut

You are right, my comment is only valid in California.

Almost all health insurance companies in the USA are required to fully cover PrEP, including Descovy. This doesn't stop health insurance companies from trying to deny you, of course. You would have to appeal the denial all the way up to your state's department for health insurance, but you would definitely win.

EDIT: I was mistaken, this only applies in California.

HIV drug resistance is a real issue, not sure why other comments are dismissing the risk of resistance. The risk of resistance is why HIV positive individuals take a cocktail of drugs, and why PrEP (Truvada or Descovy) requires regular HIV testing (because if you end up positive you need to upgraded to a cocktail of drugs).

The shot will likely be exorbitant in the USA. Gilead charged almost $2k/month for Truvada (list price, of course) and Descovy is the same. Generic Truvada is like $30/month now, so the price was never about the cost to manufacture. Obviously Gilead is developing these new drugs/shots for when Descovy's patent expires.

They rely on the government mandating that health insurance companies cover the shots. This drives up the price.

Car design is driven more by market analysis / price discrimination than engineering constraints. Engineering constraints explain some aspects of car design but they don't explain the generally conservative designs of a lot of automakers.

Take the new Toyota Prius, for example. The updated model almost looks like a concept car but still has a similar shape to other cars. There's no constraint reason Toyota couldn't have styled the car similarly in previous generations. I'm guessing they made the car look like this because Prius sales were falling and they decided they needed to be aggressive with styling for sales. They may have also decided that consumers that want a car with lots of cargo space are going for SUVs and crossovers anyways, so they could make the new Prius sleeker.

There are also tons of examples of automakers intentionally reserving nicer looking features as more expensive options or for more expensive luxury models. Fabric is not really cheaper than fake leather (both of these materials are just plastic). But automakers always charge more for fake leather.

Credit card debt driving families to suicide is super exaggerated. America makes it relatively easy to get rid of credit card debt through bankruptcy. And even after bankruptcy it's possible to get credit cards again after a few years. And after seven years it's completely off your credit report.

The diet angle is just sugar and carbs.

Yeah, dental insurance is primarily a tool for companies to provide a tax free benefit to employees. It doesn't make much sense to buy dental insurance yourself, unless you're high risk (get lots of cavities, etc.)

Novamin is not really better than fluoride, from when I looked at the studies.

Nano hydroxyapatite combined with fluoride has a little bit better evidence for it being better than fluoride alone.

There are plenty of honest dentists in the Bay Area (and America). If you're well informed, it's easy to tell based on a combination of Yelp reviews and what they recommend when you come in for an exam. Most of them only take higher paying PPO insurance, or don't take insurance at all (well, they're out of network).

I used to drive an old Prius - I believe they also had fuel economy tracking, a CD player, and some models had Bluetooth audio too.

This is a Toyota EV / plug in hybrid problem; Toyota's production numbers for plug in hybrids and EVs are very low (The RAV4 Prime is a plug in hybrid). Toyota still seems reluctant to commit to EVs/PHEVs, so that appears to play a role (they are still trying to push hydrogen fuel cell cars, for example).

An infotainment is practically a legal requirement, since backup cameras are mandated by law in the USA. Since you already need a screen and a computer, you might as well add some more functionality.

This is based on the JD Power Initial Quality Survey which can't really be used to measure "quality" because they mix together "things customers get annoyed by" and "actual defects."

For example, if I'm annoyed by having to use the touchscreen in a Tesla Model 3 to open the glove box, that counts as a problem even if it has nothing to do with the actual build quality. So in this case it makes sense that more tech = more things to get annoyed about, whether or not the tech is reliable.

Because Tesla is pushing the Model Y with their pricing (presumably because margins are better). The Model Y Long Range is $500 cheaper than the Model 3 Long Range after tax credits. The base Model Y is only $3.5k more expensive than the Model 3, after tax credits.

For many months you couldn't even order a Model 3 Long Range, your only option was a Model Y Long Range.