Health Wonk Review
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at The Doctor Is In website.
Where does your PCP get their health care information
You walk into your doctors office hoping for a diagnosis to your most recent ailment. The doctor runs some tests and leaves the room telling you he will return. Ten minutes later, the doctor tells you that you have diabetes. What was the doctor doing during the ten minutes? Most likely, he was reviewing the…
No hip replacement for you, fatso!
Bob is a British citizen and is 50 years old. He has never been unemployed and has paid thousands of pounds in taxes into the NHS system. Up until now, he has been very healthy and has not had much need for the NHS system. Recently, however, Bob found out that he needed hip replacement…
Rock Star mortality
From The Economist (“Live fast, die young“): “Rock stars are famous for excess, and some pay the price. A new study suggests that they are up to three times more likely to die young than the rest of the population, mainly because of drug and alcohol abuse.” Click here to see a chart of the…
Optimal Contracts for Health Services in the Presence of Waiting Times and Asymmetric Information
Should hospitals with long waiting times have higher or lower budget transfers? Offering hospitals who have low wait times more money will increase a hospital’s incentives to decrease wait times. On the other hand, thus policy may hurt the busier hospitals and may not alleviate the wait times of those who are waiting the longest.…
How a Ph.D. Can Save Your Life
Why do people, like myself, go through the grueling, boring, masochistic process of obtaining an Economics PhD. Well, according to Paul Kedrosky (“Self help“) getting a PhD can help you discover what you really like to do. …what I found out when doing my thesis — and something I noticed in pretty much everyone I…
What are the Major Clinical Pathways to Disability
This is the question posed by a 2007 NBER working paper by Mary Beth Landrum, Kate A. Stewart, David M. Cutler. The authors use data from the National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS) between 1994 and 1999. The data is panel in nature and has the benefit of combining Medicare administrative data with survey responses.…
CoR
The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at the Health Affairs blog.
Economy and Number Uninsured grows
Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters reports (“Economy improves…“) that despite a growing economy and a decreasing poverty rate, the number of Americans without health insurance is growing. Approximately 47 million Americans do not have health insurance.
Theory of the Second Best
There have been some interesting economics blog postings in recent weeks about the theory of the second best. Dani Rodrik of Harvard argues (“Why do economists disagree“) that economists can generally be viewed as first-best economists and second best economists. For instance, first-best economists would claim that all healthcare should be privately financed, with a…