Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The S&P 500 is down 41% compared to last year. The unemployment rate in the U.S. is now at 6.7%. Large financial institutions are failing and droves of homeowners are defaulting on their mortgages. Is it time to give up on capitalism? Before we hand over the keys to the economy to President-elect Barack Obama, we should…
As Health Access California reminds us, tough economic times are often when sweeping government policies are enacted. President-elect Obama has some tough choices to make. Should he expand existing government programs to help those who are hurt by the economic crisis? Or should he scale back these government programs to show some fiscal responsibility?…
Are risk averse individuals less likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors? According to Anderson and Mellor (JHE 2008), the answer is yes. Using a Holt and Laury (AER 2002) methodology to measure risk aversion, the authors find that individuals who are risk averse are less likely to smoke, drink, be overweight or drive over the…
NPR’s Marketplace reports that the Cleveland Clinic has announced it’s going to disclose its doctors’ ties to the drug industry, upfront, on its website.
I have written in the past about the recent popularity of single specialty hospitals (see “Focused Factories” and “…Specialty Hospitals” posts). A paper by Kathleen Carey investigates whether or not single specialty hospitals are more efficient than traditional mutli-specialty hospitals. The study finds the following: Overall, single speciality hospitals (SSH) are not more cost efficient…
The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at Political Calculations. This CoR features a list of blog postings using a helpful and creative rating scale. Investment Grade CoR. Whole Kit and Caboodle CoR.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has data on 2007-2008 salaries for professors at various ranks (Assistant, Associate, Full Professor) in various departments. AVERAGE FACULTY SALARIES BY FIELD AND RANK AT 4-YEAR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, 2007-8. Professors teaching Law, Business or Engineer were among the highest paid.”Among new assistant professors, those in business had the…
From Rabien and Oswald (2008) in the latest edition of the Journal of Health Economics: “It has been known for centuries that the rich and famous have longer lives than the poor and ordinary. Causality, however, remains trenchantly debated. The ideal experiment would be one in which extra status could somehow be dropped upon a sub-sample…
The Economist reports that Argentina has recently passed “a law to nationalise the country’s private pension system.” Is this a good thing? With the stock market in the tank, many individuals yearn for the security of a government-funded retirement plans compared to private, individual investments in stocks and bonds. However, public pensions may not be so…
From the BBC: “…researchers found Web searches for common symptoms such as headache and chest pain were just as likely or more likely to lead people to pages describing serious conditions as benign ones, even though the serious illnesses are much more rare. Searching for ‘chest pain’ or ‘muscle twitches’ returned terrifying results with the…