Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
NPR’s All Things Considered has an interesting report on health care in Russia. A few items that caught my eye ear: Russia offers birth bonuses of $9,500. In Russia each year, there are more abortions than live births. The wait for an MRI in Russia can be over 2 months. Doctors are often-well trained, but…
In the U.S. a much higher percentage of medical is paid for out of pocket. Further, there are about 45 million uninsured. In Canada, the government pays for almost all health care. The benefits and costs of a centralized, universal health care system have been discussed previously on this blog (see Oct 2, 2007 and…
Health economists and policymakers have lots of ideas of how to improve the health care system. Yet few of these reforms are implemented. Why? Max Hotopf of Healthcare Europa tries to answer this question in the context of Europe’s attempts at healthcare reform. Below are some of his arguments and my comments. Decentralization. “In most…
The Wall Street Journal reports that China is aiming for Universal Health Care. The Chinese hope to cover 90% of the population within 2 years, and provide health coverage for all Chinese by 2020. “This all stands in contrast to China’s current system, which provides little government funding to government hospitals and requires patients to pay heavy out-of-pocket…
In Europe and North America, the influenza vaccination rate is about 20% to 40%. In China, this figure is only 2%. The pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis smells opportunity. China Business Daily reports that Sanofi-Aventi will invest €7 million to build a new vaccination prodction facility in Shenzhen. The article continues: “after the company’s the pharmaceutical factory…
Economists generally define efficiency in two manners: productive efficiency and allocative efficiency. Productive efficiency means producing a good or service using fewest inputs. A car company who produces a car that costs $20,000 to manufacture is less efficient than a company that can produce that same car (at the same quality) at a cost of…
This is the question asked by Newhouse and Sinaiko in their 2008 paper in the Forum for Health Economics and Policy. The answer is yes. Single Payer Country Health Exp as Share of GDP (2006) Canada 10.0 Norway 8.7 Portugal 10.2 Spain 8.4 Sweden 9.2 United Kingdom 8.4 Average 9.2 Multi-payer Country Health Exp…
Merrill Goozner writes about MDR-TB in Russia in a four-part feature article in Scientific American.
In the July/August 2008 edition of Health Affairs, health economist Mark Pauly discuss his opinions with respect to the evolution of health insurance in India and China. He notes that in both countries, rising incomes has lead to increased demand for medical care, especially in urban areas. Despite the increased demand for medical care, there…
Below is a side-by-side comparison of health care and economic statistics from China and India. Category China India Population 1.33 billion 1.15 billion Life Expectancy (2008) 73.18 69.25 Infant Mortality Rate (per 1000 live births) 21.16 32.31 GDP (PPP) – 2007 $6.99 billion $2.99 trillion GDP/capita (PPP) – 2007 $5,300 $2,700 GDP growth – 2007…