Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The L.A. Times reports on Frank Lucero, a man arrested for drug use, petty theft. Mr. Lucero had glaucoma and while he was in prison, his eye ailment went untreated. Lucero hadn’t been able to see much since being diagnosed with glaucoma while at Soledad State Prison in 2005. Still, with medication, he was…
The Boston Globe reports that “Overseers of Massachusetts’ trailblazing healthcare program made their first cuts yesterday, trimming $115 million, or 12 percent, from Commonwealth Care, which subsidizes premiums for needy residents and is the centerpiece of the 2006 law.” The reduction in the Commonwealth Care was caused by the bad economy. Not only does a…
Southern California is in the midst of a drought. What is the city doing to conserve water? They are resorting to new rules and ‘water cops‘. Apartments, Condos and Businesses can water: Monday, Wednesday & Friday Homes with odd-numbered addresses can water: Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday Homes with even-numbered addresses can water: Saturday, Monday &…
Ideas for health reform from the Society of Actuaries. How to save money: Don’t make doctors get a bachelor’s degree. Do we have too much medical care? “…35 to 45 percent of prescriptions may have no effect on the disease for which they are prescribed and that as little as 10 percent of diseases are…
Cato Institute Senior Fellow Michael Tanner is not a big fan of some health care reforms that are being proposed. He reviews recent health reform proposals in his Obamacare article. I review a few of his arguments below. Employer Mandate. Tanner believes employer mandates are a bad idea and I wholeheartedly agree. Large firms can…
Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs have become very popular among development economists. This programs pay poor families to have their children attend school and/or get vaccinated. Some of the larger programs include Bolsa Família in Brazil and Oportunidades in Mexico. Should economists support CCTs that pay the poor to get vaccinated? This depends on 2 factors: 1)…
In a letter to President Obama today, AdvaMed, AHIP, AHA, AMA, Pharma, and SEIU all claimed that they would save the country $2 trillion. Saving, however, is a relative term. The goal is to reduce the rate health care expense growth by 1.5%. Thus, this is not a true savings in the typical sense of…
Brazil’s Bolsa Família program has been help up as one of the great social welfare programs. It has been a model for Mexico’s own Oportunidades social welfare program. The Wilson Quarterly reports that the 44 million poor Brazilians who participate in this program receive payments of up to $104 a month for sending their children to…
The book Cadillac Desert discusses the development of dams, aquaducts, and irrigation canals to slake the thirst of cities and farmers in the Western U.S.. While these projects did eventually deliver the water they promised, they did so at huge costs to taxpayers. In the words of former congressmen Robert W. Edgar: “The old-boy network…
Using real world data is fraught with complexity. Wouldn’t it be nice to randomly change government regulations and see how people react? A paper by Stephen Rassenti and Carl Johnston use a laboratory experiment to do just that. In the experiment, survey participants are in charge of running a firm. The firm must decide if it will provide…