Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
A general result in the obesity literature, is that higher female labor participation rates lead to higher obesity rates in children. For instance, the 1996 Welfare Reform act (PRWORA) increased work requirements for low-income mothers and thus increased labor participation and likely childhood obesity. One question which has not been resolved yet thorough which mechanisms…
The N.Y. Times ran an interesting pair of articles Sunday regarding how economists “got it wrong.” Conflict of Interest Ben Stein (in “The Long and Short of It at Goldman Sachs“) comments on the economic analysis conducted by economist Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs. Dr. Hatzuis concludes that the sub-prime mortgage ‘crisis’ will not only…
A recent Yahoo! News article (“Half of U.S. Doctors mum…“) uncovered some disturbing findings regarding physician practices in the U.S. For instance: “They found that 46 percent of physicians surveyed admitted they knew of a serious medical error that had been made but did not tell authorities about it.” “Doctors are also surprisingly willing to…
Forbes’ The Science Business blog has an interesting interview with Congressman Fortney âPeteâ? Stark (D-Calif.). Mr. Stark was the legislator responsible for the creation of the Stark laws banning self referrals by doctors to facilities in which they had an ownership interest. For instance, the law means that “a doctor can’t refer a patient to…
A paper by Alexander S. Preker and April Harding at the World Bank analyze the roles of the public and private sector in health care. One of the more interesting portions discusses medical care financing using some examples from ancient history. “Ideological views on the roles of the state and the private sector belong to…
Economists and health researchers have generally shown that when doctors are paid on a fee-for-service basis, they will advice the patient to undergo more medical procedures than when the doctor is paid on a capitation or salaried basis (see my own paper: “Operating on Commission“). Which payment method maximizes welfare has not been proven and…
The following list of phrases and their definitions might help you understand the mysterious language of science and medicine. These special phrases are also applicable to anyone working on a Ph.D. dissertation or academic paper anywhere! “It has long been known” = I didn’t look up the original reference. “A definite trend is evident” =…
I recently received an email from the Patient Privacy Rights organization. They are conducting a campaign to protect the privacy of individual’s prescription drug information. According to their website, a Newsday article reports the following: Randee Lonergan filled her prescriptions at the same pharmacy for years. But a month ago she was shocked to find…
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Roy Poses, MD.’s Health Care Renewal blog.
Are married people more likely to be obese than single individuals? More to the point, does being married cause obesity? Married individuals are generally older than never-married individuals and since age is correlated with obesity, there could be a spurious relationship between marriage and obesity. One may think that married individuals are not on the…