Quotation of the Day: Einstein
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction Albert Einstein
Month: October 2013
Sustainability of Canadian Health Care System in Doubt?
Canada’s spends far less on health care on health care than the U.S. According to the CIA World Factbook, in 2010 Canada spent 11.3% of its GDP on health expenditures compared to 17.9% of GDP in the U.S. Nevertheless, a Society of Actuaries (SOA) report claims that Canada may be in a tenuous fiscal situation. …
Fisher’s Exact Test
How can one tell if two variables are related? If you have continuous variables, one can calculate a correlation. What if one is analyzing a 2×2 contingency table? What are is the likelihood of observing just such a distribution assuming the probability of being in the two groups is known? One way to determine this…
Friday Links
Bubonic plague warning. Who is left behind in China? Forbes maps the U.S. economy. Do SNFs reduce re-hospitalization rates? The mistaken posterboy. Why I jumped off the Ivory Tower.
A HWR you should ignore?
Jaan Sidorov has posted a great new edition of the Health Wonk Review titled ‘The President Says You Should Ignore This Health Wonk Review’ at his Disease Management Care Blog.
Cost of Cancer in Europe
In 2008, 2.45 million people were diagnosed with cancer and 1.23 million died because of cancer in the European Union (EU). What is the economic burden of cancer? A paper by Luengo-Fernandez (2013) aims to estimate just this quantity. They find that: Cancer cost the EU €126 billion in 2009…Across the EU, the health-care costs…
Medicaid and HIX plans may overlap
Consumers in 30 states (60%) will have the option of at least one plan operating as both a qualified health plan (QHP) in the health insurance exchange (HIX) and as a Medicaid managed care organization (MMCO), according to an Avalere analysis. In these states, Medicaid beneficiaries may be able to enroll in a plan offered…
Walmart is the low-price leader
…at least when it comes to prescription drugs. Health Pocket reports that the lowest cost Part D plan is the Humana/Walmart RX plan which charges a monthly premium of $12.60. In 2013, AARP MedicareRX Saver Plus from UnitedHealthcare was the lowest cost plan and charged a premium of $15. In 2014, however, the monthly premium…
MedTech in 2013 and beyond
How will medical technology (medtech) firms face the challenges of an evolving marketplace? Although the global medtech market is expected to grow 4.5% to $455 billion from 2011 to 2018, there is less growth anticipated in developed countries. Today a review a report from PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) that provides some insight. Getting funding Having…
Friday Links
State HIX > Federal HIX? Who would want to use government-produced software? NHS England scraps rare disease fund. A personal Affordable Care Act. Healthy at 100?