Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The Wall Street Journal reports that China is aiming for Universal Health Care. The Chinese hope to cover 90% of the population within 2 years, and provide health coverage for all Chinese by 2020. “This all stands in contrast to China’s current system, which provides little government funding to government hospitals and requires patients to pay heavy out-of-pocket…
The New York Times has an revealing article on Henry Cisneros. Mr. Cisneros was the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under President Clinton. In an attempt to expand home ownership rates, especially among low-income households, Mr. Cisneros loosened mortgage restrictions. ” Families no longer had to prove they had five years of stable income; three…
In recent years, economists have examined the phenomenon of offshoring. Offshorable service jobs are characterized by a number of factors. Jensen and Kletzer note that offshorable jobs have little face-to-face customer contact and work processes that can be monitored via the internet. Thus, data entry is easily offshorable whereas barbershop services are not. A paper…
What is AIG doing with the bailout money it has received from the federal government? The Wall Street Journal reports that AIG is “…using taxpayer money in its effort to soften new federal controls over the mortgage industry.”
Today I attended a seminar by Eli Berman on his paper, “Can Hearts and Minds Be Bought? The Economics of Counterinsurgency in Iraq.” He noted that the U. S. Military often employs pediatricians to collect information. When, the military pays for a pediatrician to serve an Iraqi community., not only does this engender good will…
In Europe and North America, the influenza vaccination rate is about 20% to 40%. In China, this figure is only 2%. The pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis smells opportunity. China Business Daily reports that Sanofi-Aventi will invest €7 million to build a new vaccination prodction facility in Shenzhen. The article continues: “after the company’s the pharmaceutical factory…
Does physician compensation affect the quantity of medical care provided? My paper “Operating on Commission” claims that the answer is yes. I find that surgery rates increase 78% when patients switch from capitation to fee-for-service (FFS) specialists. A paper by Devlin and Sarma (2008) examines a similar question for Canadian family physicians. Since the inception…
One of the goals of a government-run, single-payer, centralized health system is to give everyone equal access to quality care. The availability of health care in the UK’s National Health System should be the same for all people regardless of income or employer. An article in the Telegraph reports that NHS employees are getting preferential…
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters.
Do fat people earn lower wages? Finding a correlation between weight and wages does not mean that a causal relationship exists. For instance, assume that body type has no effect on wage. If more motivated people have higher wages and also exercise more, we may find a negative relationship between body weight and wages. On…