Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The U.S. is currently involved with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but its longest running entanglement is its war on drugs. Marketplace reports that “the war on drugs, though, has been going on for four decades. Forty years ago today President Nixon asked Congress to create a national anti-drug policy. It became the war on…
Many health reformers are urging President Obama to pass legislation which would create a public, Medicare-style health plan which would be available for all individuals. The plan would be open to all…or would it. If a government ran a huge deficit and had to cut spending, would there be an enrollment freeze if the public…
Health Reform is at the top of President Obama’s list of reform efforts. Mr. Obama claims that not only will health reform improve the physical health of the nation, it will also improve its economic health. In a Council of Economic Advisers Report, President Obama lists three reasons why slowing health care costs and expanding…
The 82nd edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Colorado Health Insurance Insider.
Previous studies have found that paitents of staff/group model HMOs consistently report lower quality of care than patients of Network HMOs. The finding of Rodriguez et al. (2009) contradicts these assumptions. They find the following: Physicians belonging to integrated medical groups had better performance on the communication and care coordination measures. Physicians belonging to medical…
Social safety net services are necessary, but often unprofitable for hospitals. Is the expansion of HMOs and for-profit hospitals jeopardizing these safety net servies? This is the question researcher Yu-Chu Shen investigates. To test this hypothesis, Shen examines how changes in the market share of HMOs and for-profit HMOs affects probability of shutting down following…
The Atlantic discusses the possibility of organ sales and organ chains. This is something I have advocated for here, here and here.
The Denver Post has an interesting article about employee theft of drugs from hospitals. Stealing from a hospital is not easy: “Hospitals guard drugs carefully, requiring staffers to use individual codes or even fingerprints to unlock cabinets where drugs are stored. At Rose [Medical Center], an electronic system tracks narcotics from the time they arrive…
Puenpatom and Rosenman (2008) examine universal health coverage in Thailand: “In 2001 Thailand became the first developing country to introduce universal health insurance coverage (UC). Six of 76 provinces adopted UC in April 2001, while the remaining provinces implemented UC in October of that year. One of the key elements of the program is capitated-based…
The New York Times is reporting that “to pay for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system, House Democrats will propose a surtax on individuals earning $280,000 and up and couples earning more than $350,000.” Now, taxes in and of themselves need not be distortionary. Let us assume that your employer takes $10,000 from…