Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Recently, the San Diego Union Tribune reported that the Sharp Grossmont Hospital in eastern San Diego county was cited for a number of preventable deaths. Reporter Cherl Clark found numerous problems, which included: “staff members restraining a highly medicated, 25-year-old man with schizophrenia in such a way that he was allowed to suffocate. In addition,…
The most inspirational television advertisement of the Olympics (and a longer YouTube video).
Justin Wolfers writes in the Freakonomics blog that economists should limit their objections during academic seminars to a list of comments to make discussions of research papers more efficient. Here are some of my favorite: Adam Smith said that. Unfortunately, there is an identification problem which is not dealt with adequately in the paper. The…
The U.S. is in a huge amount of debt. This will only worsen in the short- to medium-term as the the baby boomers retire and Medicare and Social Security budgets balloon. Here’s a movie about it. “This country has started consuming more than it produces.” – Warren Buffet
NPR’s Morning Edition reports on what happened when health economist Philip Musgrove brought a dying man to an emergency room. The receptionist with whom Dr. Musgrove interacted would not treat a the man until his health insurance information was collected.
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Workers Comp Insider. Here are some of my favorite posts from the HWR: David Williams’ Health Business Blog on the WSJ’s investigative reporting (a newspaper actually used the words “standard error”…amazing!) Bob Laszewski’s HC Policy and Marketplace Review on the UK’s NHS decision to…
In the July/August 2008 edition of Health Affairs, health economist Mark Pauly discuss his opinions with respect to the evolution of health insurance in India and China. He notes that in both countries, rising incomes has lead to increased demand for medical care, especially in urban areas. Despite the increased demand for medical care, there…
Today I appeared on the Al Jazeera English News station, broadcast all over the world (watch live). I was involved in a debate with a pediatrician from Washington, D.C. regarding the merits and demerits of a single-payer health care system.
Income inequality has generally increased since the 1970s. Even for researchers who find that income inequality has Does this mean that happiness inequality has also increased? An NBER working paper by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers claims that this is not the case. Below is the a portion of the abstract. While there has been…
The International Herald Tribune reports that the U.S. Postal Service has posted a $1.1 billion dollar loss in the past quarter. What are the reasons for this huge loss? First, total mail volume is down 5.5% from last year, likely due to the economic slowdown and the gradual increase in internet communication over time. Also,…