Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
A few papers have found that mortality rises after the death of the spouse. Some researchers have inferred that this is due to a causal effect of this emotionally traumatic event. Further, married individuals generally live longer, so the loss of this “marriage protection” could be the cause of increased mortality. On the other hand,…
The Health08.org website has a great tool to give voters a side-by-side comparison of John McCain and Barack Obama’s stance on a variety of health care issues. For some commentary on each of the candidates health care reform proposals see my post on Obama vs. McCain health care policies.
The Milwaukee Brewers have made it to post-season play for the first time since 1982! If you are a Brewers fans, check out Bob Uecker’s call of Ryan Braun’s HR and CC Sabathia getting the final outs. The Brewers first playoff game will be in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Go Crew! Coverage: Michael Hunt at the…
Who are health care bloggers? Ivor Kovic, Ileana Lulic, Gordana Brumini (2008) conducted a survey to find out. “The majority of responding bloggers were white (75%), highly educated (71% with a Masters degree or doctorate), male (59%), residents of the United States (72%), between the ages of 30 and 49 (58%), and working in the…
This year the Healthcare Economist, Jason Shafrin, will be completing his Ph.D. in health economics at the University of California, San Diego. He will be available for interviewing at the AEA meetings in San Francisco, January 3-5. For more information regarding Jason Shafrin’s credentials and his contact information, visit his homepage: jasonshafrin.com.
The N.Y. Times writes about how hospitals have standardized patient warning wristbands. Now, red wristbands will denote an allergy risk, yellow will denote a fall risk, and so on. This should be the same at all hospitals, reducing the need to re-train nurses and other hospital staff who move between hospitals. “The drive [to standardize…
President Bush’s speech tonight urged Americans to side with the Bush-Bernanke-Paulson worldview that a bailout is the only option. Is it the only option? Luigi Zingales believes Henry Paulson’s decision to bail out Wall Street is a mistake. Most economists agree that the government won’t get a “deal” when negotiating the price of risky assets. “In…
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded 25 individiuals with their 2008 “Genius” grants. Among these 25 individuals, two deal specifically with the field of medicine. Peter Provonost uses evidence-based medicine to standardize quality of care. To address the problem of catheter infections, “Pronovost culled lengthy guidelines into a simple checklist of five…
The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at American Consumer News.
Economists generally define efficiency in two manners: productive efficiency and allocative efficiency. Productive efficiency means producing a good or service using fewest inputs. A car company who produces a car that costs $20,000 to manufacture is less efficient than a company that can produce that same car (at the same quality) at a cost of…