Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The Washington Post reports today (“U.S. Senators…“) that 5 Democratic and 5 Republican senators have signed a letter requesting that President Bush “fix the American health care system.” What does fixing the health care system entail for senators Kohl (D-WI), Thune (R-SD), Wyden (D-OR), DeMint (R-SC), Conrad (D-ND), Bennett (R-UT), Salazar (D-CO), Lott (R-MS), Cantwell…
This quarter I am a Teacher’s Assistant in a Law and Economics class at UCSD. In one of the lectures I learned about economists’ favorite judge: Justice Learned Hand. Hand is most famous for his rule for determining negligence in the U.S. v. Carroll Towing case. Legally, negligence occurs when 1) the defendant has a…
There are many myths in the popular press regarding what are the major determinants of increasing health care costs. Some pundits claim that illegal immigrants that do not purchase insurance are using emergency departments (ED) for primary care services, thus driving up the cost of health care for American citizens (see Science Daily‘s interview with…
Recently I came across a paper by John Williamson describing a Notional Defined Contribution Model as a replacement for state pension system. Countries who have adapted the Notional Defined Contribution (NDC) model include Sweden (1994), Italy (1995), Latvia (1996), the Kyrgyz Republic (1997), Poland (1999), and Mongolia (2000). The model is in essence a pay-as-you-go…
Today I will review a few basic concepts of time series econometrics. A time series is a stochastic process where observations appear in different time periods. For instance, {zi} (i=1,2,3,…) is a stochastic process with zi representing the GDP each quarter. Below are a few important definitions which are important to econometric estimation using time…
This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at HealthBlawg.
Knowledge is power. Medical care is a product in which individuals offer patients compensate doctors according to their expertise in the health care field. One way to help sick individuals—especially in developing countries—is to increase their own knowledge of the illnesses which afflict them. One organization working to spread health care knowledge is Global-HELP. The…
Below are some quotations from Gary Becker and Richard Posner’s debate on the Bush healthcare plan. Becker: “Since under present tax law, medical expenses has to exceed 71/2 % of a family’s taxable income before this spending begins to be tax deductible, it is very hard to get any tax benefits with individual health insurance.…
“Cancer cured with soothing balmy oils.” Appeal to Reason “According to this repeated nationwide survey, more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” – TV ad Regarding patent medicine sold at the end of the nineteenth century: “…the medicines were ineffectual. Some of the syrups contained as much as 80 per cent alcohol; many of…
A push towards more accurate evaluation of health care quality has become a major public policy goal in recent years. The Department of Health and Human Services now has a website ranking hospital quality and California has a Healthcare Quality Report Card. One problem with simple quality measures such as mortality or morbidity rates are…