Manhattan Institute

The Manhattan Institute’s Center for Medical Progress has some interesting articles on health care policy.  The Center “…is dedicated to articulating the importance of medical progress and the connection between free-market institutions…” One paper of note is by Vernon, Santerre and Giaccotto (“Are Drug Price Controls good for your Health“).  The authors examine the Medicare…

Good News: Cancer rates fall

With so much negative news on how ‘our health care system is failing,’ it is nice to see that “failure” may be an overstatement.  According to the USA Today (“Cancer Deaths Drop“), the American Cancer Society reports that cancer rates have fallen for the second straight year. This is great news.  The National Center for…

Sight for sore eyes

The Economist magazine (“Pyramid power“) has an interesting article on how to get reading glasses to poor individuals in third world countries. Below are two excerpts: Government health clinics are understandably preoccupied with life-threatening maladies and urban optical shops typically shun simple reading glasses in favour of costly, high-margin prescription glasses. But this neglect takes…

Universal Health Insurance in Wisconsin

Over the past week, I have discussed California’s proposal to extend health insurance to all individuals. Today, I will examine—in my mind—a superior plan developed by former Republican Rep. Curt Gielow. According to a concept paper from the Wisconsin Health Plan website, the reforms will have the following impact: “All eligible Wisconsin residents receive a…

Manpower

For Labor Economists, the Economist magazine has an interesting story (“The world of work“) of the Manpower corporation. Manpower is a global corporation with their headquarters located in my hometown of Milwaukee. If you look at the Fortune 500 list, Manpower can be found at number 136. Below is an excerpt from the beginning of…

“Black Market” Pharmaceuticals

In June of 2005, a pharmaceutical named BiDil used to combat heart failure was approved by the FDA. While this is not a notable event—there are many drugs to treat heart failure—the approval is novel since it was only approved for African-American patients. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the FDA “…approved BiDil for use…

Terminator on Health Care: Part II

Yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his plan to provide universal health care for all Californians.  Here are some news sites as well as some reactions from around the web. Office of the Governor press release The Current Word Blog by Jim Mathies New York Times and L.A. Times Health Affairs blog (“From Congress to California“)…

Terminator on Health Care: Part I

Last December, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a press conference detailing some of the problems in the California health care system. For instance, there are 6.5 million California residents without insurance; the governor claims that individuals insurance premiums are about $500 higher (or $1200 for a family or four) than they would be if these uninsured…

California, Canada?

The Orange County Register had an interesting column in this Sunday’s paper. The article discusses the Field Poll which I mentioned on Thursday (“California wants…“), and concludes that Californians’ wish to have government-provided health care will lead to a Canadian-style system.  Below is the article written by senior editorial writer Steven Greenhut. “I was in…