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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Our last word in business today is: ambulance taxis.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We've all probably thought about it. Sitting in traffic, an ambulance zooms past and you think, I mean, if only I had one of those sirens.

MONTAGNE: Right. And in Moscow, someone saw a business opportunity. Canada's National Post reports that ads have started popping up online offering rides in ambulances for $200 an hour.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Imagine a world with no tax returns.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GREENE: OK, it's just a fantasy. But actually, in some countries taxpayers can sign up to receive simply a bill. The government sends you a tax bill, you pay it and, voila, that's it.

Now, there was an effort to bring return-free filing to the United States, but that effort came up against stiff opposition. And to find out why, we called Liz Day of ProPublica. She's been digging into this issue.

Liz, thanks for joining us.

Loneliness hurts, but social isolation can kill you. That's the conclusion of a study of more than 6,500 people in the U.K.

The study, by a team at University College London, comes after decades of research showing that both loneliness and infrequent contact with friends and family can, independently, shorten a person's life. The scientists expected to find that the combination of these two risk factors would be especially dangerous.

Since the Supreme Court made the Medicaid expansion under the federal health law optional last year, states' decisions have largely split along party lines. States run by Democrats have been opting in; states run by Republicans have mostly been saying no or holding back.

It's a visual no parent wants to picture: a child describing what it's like to live in a house with no power for lights, heat or cooking. For many middle-class American parents, it's hard to imagine their family ever facing a situation like that. But a new HBO documentary suggests that many seemingly prosperous parents are only a few misfortunes away from dark houses and empty refrigerators.