Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Defining which cancer treatments are the “best” is not as easy as you think. At first glance, treatments that produce the largest survival gains should be considered best. Most cancer treatments come with serious side effects. Thus, new treatments that better improve survival may also increase the risk of adverse events (although in some cases–like…
Located in South America, Peru is almost twice the size of Texas and has 31 million people. About one third of these live along the coast, largely in Lima. About half of the population–largely Amerinidan population–live in the Andean highlands, with the rest spread on the eastern slopes of the Andes and the adjoining rainforest. …
An interesting study measuring trends in cancer survival between 2000 and 2014 found, unsurprisingly, that patients in more developed countries had better survival. For women diagnosed with breast cancer between 2010 and 2014, 5-year survival rates reached 89.5% in Australia and 90.2% in the United States, but generally varied worldwide and remained low in some…
Aaron Carroll argues ‘no’ and–in most but not all cases–I agree with him. Here is the evidence he cites: More health insurance does not reduce emergency department (ED) visits. States that expanded Medicaid eligibility with ACA funding saw an increase in ED visits relative to non-expansion states. In Oregon, individuals who won an eligibility ‘lottery’ to…
The CMS Office of the Actuary released their 2016 estimates for U.S. health care spending. We’re getting close to health care taking up 18% of the economy. Total nominal US health care spending increased 4.3 percent and reached $3.3 trillion in 2016. Per capita spending on health care increased by $354, reaching $10,348. The share of gross…
There have been numerous articles (e.g., Krugman in the NY Times) stating that disparities in life expectancy is growing. It is known that income inequality has grown in recent decades but some claim that health inequality is also growing. Janet Currie argues that the truth is not as bad as you think in a forthcoming article…
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the answer is $10 million. Other agencies place use a somewhat lower number. The Food and Drug administration pegs the value at $9.5 million and the Department of Agriculture places the value at $8.9 million. Technically, what these agencies are calculating are the value of a statistical life (VSL). …
An interesting study by Chen et al. (2017) examines the cost of cancer care among Medicare patients. Using SEER-Medicare data of people diagnosed with cancer between 2007 and 2011, they found: Over the year of diagnosis, mean per-patient annual Medicare spending varied substantially by cancer type: $35,849 for breast cancer, $26,295 for prostate cancer, $55,597…
According to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO’s) 2017 Long-Term Budget Outlook, you need to look no further than entitlements for the elderly. Mandatory programs have accounted for a rising share of the federal government’s noninterest spending over the past few decades, exceeding 60 percent for the past several years. Much of the growth has occurred because…
That is the conclusion reacted by CMS’ Office of the Actuary. As published in a recent Health Affairs article: Under current law, national health expenditures are projected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.6 percent for 2016–25 and represent 19.9 percent of gross domestic product by 2025. For 2016, national health expenditure growth is anticipated to…