Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The Kaiser Family Foundation that says 59% of people think health reform would make the country better off and only 12% thought health reform would make the country worse off. This seems like overwhelming support. However, how only 38% of people thought health reform would make themselves and their family better off compared to 11%…
Does Social Security work? By that, I mean does giving elderly individuals a government pension increase their level of income, the amount of goods the can consume, or even their happiness? An NBER working paper by Baker, Gruber and Milligan (2009) tries to answer this question in the Canadian setting. Background Currently, Canadian income transfer…
Healthcare Europa reports that despite being in a public healthcare system, many physicians receive informal payments to supplement their income. “The top doctors, the ones in managerial positions in hospitals, make 5-10 times their monthly salaries of Euros 1,000 to Euros 2,000 from informal payments. They will also take bribes on any new equipment or…
In the Netherlands, the Health Insurance Act of 2006 mandates that all individuals have health insurance. Health insurance is provided by the private sector and these private health insurers can charge any premium they please. The government does provide some risk-adjusted payment to the insurance companies. This means that the state gives insurance company more…
In Turkey, the number of private hospitals has expanded from 250 in 2006 to 375 in 2008. Healthcare Europa reports that Turkish private hospitals previously charged whatever prices they pleased. The government health insurance plan would pay the basic rate to the private hospitals, and the patient would be responsible for any difference between the…
Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters has a two great posts on Medicare’s new payment structure. The first post reports how exactly Medicare is changing its reimbursement for medical services. “It looks like reimbursement for cognitive services – the 99xxx codes for readers expert in CPT-4s…office visits and similar services for others – will…
The economic stimulus plan is looking to spend money on “shovel ready” infrastructure projects. Even though stimulus bill funds have not yet been spent, fiscal policy has already generated increased economic activity in one sector: lobbying. NPR’s Marketplace reports that Washington lobbyists earned a record-breaking $3.2 billion last year. Sheila Krumholz, Executive Director for the Center for…
While President Obama’s speech to Congress had many components, I’m going to focus on those related to health care. I will also comment on the Republican response. OBAMA ADDRESS I applaud the President for specifically addressing the need for health care reform. “…we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold. We…
Ph.D. students have one goal: finish your dissertation. While this may seem like an easy task, it is one that is difficult and takes many years to complete. A dissertation in economics is made up of 3 chapters (usually 3 separate papers). Why does it take some grad students 7 years, 8 years or more…
Two weeks ago I did a piece looking at the cost of living in different states. One major dimension of the cost of living is state sales and incomes taxes. With the recent economic downturn, it looks like I’ll have to update my numbers. California currently has the highest sales tax of any state (7.25%). …