Lifetime Benefits of Medical Technology

Revascularization (bypass surgery or angioplasty) have been frequently used procedures to treat patients who have experienced a myocardial infarction (MI). These procedure are expensive, but are supposed to enhance longevity. Do they? This is the question analyzed by David Cutler in his NBER working paper titled “The Lifetime Benefits of Medical Technology.” The problem with…

King of all media

The Healthcare Economist has expanded to radio.  For those in the Pensacola, Florida area, you may have heard my appearance at 1:15pm Central time on Rick Outzen‘s “IN Your Head Radio” on 1620 WNRP.  During the interview, Rick and I discussed the pros and cons of S-CHIP as well as the Dutch health care system…

San Diego Wildfires from a San Diego Resident

As most of you know who have been reading the news, the wildfires in San Diego, my home, have been causing much devastation. According to San Diego’s NPR station KPBS, an “estimated 245,000 acres burned and 1200 homes destroyed in San Diego County” (reported as of 10:09am Pacific time). Over 250,000 individuals have been evacuated…

Catastrophic Payments for Health Care in Asia

An amazing collection of data has been performed by van Doorslaer et al. in their 2007 Health Economics paper “Catastrophic Payments for Health Care in Asia.” For 14 Asian countries, the authors categorize all charged services, free services, and income-related fee waivers. Further the paper examines the frequency and magnitude of out-of-pocket payments for medical…

Quotations of the day

“Un libro abierto es un cerebro que habla; cerrado, un amigo que espera; olvidado, un alma que perdona; destruido, un corazón que llora.” Proverbio Hindú   Nada de lo que el hombre ha sido, es, o será, lo ha sido, lo es ni lo será de una vez para siempre, sino que ha llegado a…

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

I recently finished reading an interesting book titled A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper by John Allen Paulos. Published in 1995, the book employs simplified mathematical and statistical techniques in order to ascertain the validity of many statements published in the press. There are also numerous examples from the arena of health care reporting. For instance:…

Health Wonk Review

This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is overflowing with useful information. Can there be too much of a good thing, you ask? Well for those of you who don’t have the time to read every article in this week’s HWR edition, I’ve narrowed the posts into a few, easy-to-use categories. BEST POSTS OF…