Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Healthcare Economist was named as one of the Top 50 medical blogs of 2018. In fact, we were listed first among the Healthcare Laws and Policies blogs. Thanks to the Cables and Sensors website for this recognition.
In econ-speak, we are looking to measure the elasticity of plan switching with respect to premium increases. This elasticity is in essence how much would a 10% change in premium affect the likelihood of plan choice change. If the answer is 10%, the elasticity is -1. If the answer is a 5% increase in plan…
Having health insurance is great. It largely protects people against financial losses that accrue when you become ill. It provides coverage for medical services. And improves patients health. Well, that last one is only true if health insurance allows you to access care. When health insurance provider reimbursement is low as is the case for…
Will 1 in 4 of Earthlings soon be obese? How quickly do patients need physicians follow-ups after hospitalization? Is there adverse selection in California’s individual health insurance market? Does continuity of care matter? An example in home health. Success at BC/BS value-based care program?
This weekend, one of the biggest conferences in medicine is taking place: the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Conference. On June 1, just prior to the conference commencing , I participated in an interesting half-day workshop in Chicago centered around better understanding of the value of innovation in oncology. The workshop was sponsored by…
Conservatives may be surprised to ehar that one of the best ways to strengthen monogamous marriage is more equally distributed income…One standard conservative argument against antipoverty policies is their cost: taxes burden the affluent and, by reducing their incentive to work, lower overall economic output. But if one goal of the policy is to bolster…
It appears that the answer is ‘yes’. Many studies by the Dartmouth Atlas team have shown that regions that spend more on medical care do not always get better outcomes. However, a recent paper by my Precision Health Economics colleagues James Baumgardner, Ahva Shahabi, Mark Linthicum, Seanna Vine, and Darius Lakdawalla as well as Chris Zacker…
A nice summary of the policy changes scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB).
How is President Trump planning to keep his campaign promise to improve health care for Veterans? One pathways is through his VA Mission Act of 2018. As the Washington Post reports, this bill would include $55 billion in additional funding for veterans. A key part of this legislation is that it allows for more veterans…
Did the ACA constrain health care costs? Should we pay for blood? Health care in your barbershop? Do we need to move beyond traditional cost effectiveness? In what ways can machine learning surprise us?