Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
France is often seen by liberals as the ideal system. It has universal health care, with few waiting lists. France has the highest level of satisfaction with their health care among all European countries. How can this be? What is their secret? France provides a basic, universal health insurances through large occupation-based funds. The General…
Recently I came across an article by Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute title “The Grass is Not Always Greener: A Look at National Health Care Systems Around the World.” I figured that the article would be a highly biased piece of writing which would show that the U.S. healthcare system is great and the…
The PBS program Frontline has focusing its show on the topic “Sick Around the World.” The show airs on Tuesday, April 15 and may be of interest to Healthcare Economist readers. From the Frontline publicist: “To examine the question of universal health care coverage, FRONTLINE teams up with T.R. Reid, a veteran foreign correspondent for…
The average person believes that they are above average in almost all respects. This phenomenon is often called the Lake Wobegon effect after Garrison Keillor’s fictitious town in which all people are above average. A paper by Dunning, Heath and Suls (2004) gives some great examples of Lake Wobegon in action. “Motorcyclists believe they are…
For all my economist peers who are sick and tired of monetary policy, financial option valuations, and esoteric econometric specifications, it may be time for a change. The American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE) is holding their second annual conference August 14-16 in Portland, Oregon. The AAWE also publishes the Journal of Wine Economics. I…
“When regulators or policy makers succeed in improving the quality of care provided by some doctors, do patients even notice and/or care?” This is the question which Kenneth L. Leonard attempts to answer. Davies and Ware (1988) do state that patient satisfaction is correlated with average quality levels. One problem with most studies is that…
The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Early Retirement Extreme.
Paul Levy, the president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston made about $1 million dollars in 2005. Of this, $650,000 was base salary, $195,000 was made up of incentive bonus, and the balance was composed of compensation for health insurance, life insurance, and retirement. How do I know these figures? Paul…
An Annals of Internal Medicine survey sheds some light on physicians opinions regarding universal health care. Overall 59% of physicians support national health insurance and 32% oppose it. Support for national health insurance increased 10 percentage points since 2002 (49%). Unsurprisingly, surgical subspecialties, anesthesiologists, and radiologists, were the only specialities where more than half of…
The N.Y. Times reports (“…24/7 Stress…“) that blogging may be hazardous to your health.