Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
According to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, in the U.S. the answer is yes. “National serum surveys indicate that approximately 3.2 million persons in the United States are living with chronic hepatitis C (10), 66% of whom were born between 1945 and 1964 and are now entering a period of risk for…
Today I review some of the evidence regarding whether quality rankings affect hospital choice. In particular, I focus on a recent article on choice of hospitals in the Netherlands for angioplasties. Literature Review I first review some of the previous literature on how quality affects patient choice of hospitals. Tay (2003) found changes in hospital quality…
Many media outlets (including this one) focus on the treatment of physical health ailments and do not devote enough time towards the treatment of mental health problems. Mental health problems can affect anyone, even the tough warriors in the U.S. military. In fact, suicide is a significant problem for war veterans. The New Jersey Star-Ledger…
Time Magazine on the economic boom currently happening in Washington, DC: “Yet the diversity of the Washington economy is an illusion, for each of its business sectors is to some degree a creature of the region’s single great industry—the federal government. According to a 2007 report by the Tax Foundation, for every dollar in taxes…
Despite lower costs than previously projected, the Medicare Trust Fund is still in bad shape. he estimated exhaustion date for Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund, “…remains at 2024,the same year shown in last year’s report. As in past years…the fund is not adequately financed over the next 10 years. HI expenditures in 2011 were…
In a few hours, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will address a keynote speech to graduates at Georgetown University. This is a controversial appearance. One provision of the health of the Health Reform (i.e., the ACA) mandates that employer cover contraception coverage. Although Georgetown University has agreed to provide these benefits, other…
U.S. life expectancy after cancer diagnosis is higher than that those for ten European countries. A recent study in Health Affairs cites these statistics as evidence that the more expensive treatments American physicians employ is worth it. “We found that US cancer patients experienced greater survival gains than their European counterparts; even after considering higher US costs, this investment…
Medicare is a widely popular program. Most American support increasing taxes rather than making cuts to Medicare spending. Americans prioritize spending on only Social Security and education more than Medicare. Then there is the famous “Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!” statement. Medicaid is Medicare’s ugly step-sister. Whereas Medicare beneficiaries qualify primarily due…
States face a number of decisions regarding how to establish an Health Insurance Exchange as part of the Health Reform Bill. The State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) describes in detail these policy choices. The decisions include: Creating separate exchanges for individuals and small businesses or combining the nongroup and small group markets into…
The Health insurance exchanges enacted by the PPACA (i.e., ‘Health Reform’) are meant to bring competition to the small group and individual markets. These exchanges will begin in 2014. A GAO survey of States, however, found that the current small group health insurance market is very concentrated. There is significant market concentration. Twenty-seven states reported…