Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Now we will give an example of Bayesian inference in a more complicating setting. This example is based on a problem from pp. 588-591 of Introductory Statistics for Business and Economics by Wonnacott and Wonnacott. Let us assume that there is a consumer electronics company named Banana, inc.. Banana sells iPood mp3 players. Banana, inc.,…
This week’s edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Joe Paduda’s always informative Managed Care Matters website.
There was an interesting post on the Economist’s Free Exchange blog regarding the Health Insurance voucher debate (A veto for…). The post contains a critique of a healthcare voucher plan put forth by Ezekiel Emmanuel and Victor Fuchs in The New Republic. The pros and cons of the plan are certainly interesting but the blog’s…
Bayesian Inference is an important econometric tool. Over the next few days, we will review some of the basic Bayesian inference methods. Economicitis occurs in 300 out of every 100,000 adults. Recently, however, a test has been developed to screen for the disease. Of 1000 individuals with economicitis who were tested, only 40 had an…
Health savings accounts (HSAs) have been a major point of contention for health care reformers. Supporters claim that HSAs can reduce health care costs by decreasing the moral hazard problem inherent when third parties—such as insurance companies or the government—pay for medical services. Opponents claims that HSAs will attract rich and healthy individuals, leaving only…
If you are in graduate school, how do can you get your research published? A UC-San Diego Publishing Workshop website has some some advice regarding the best ways to publish your work in top journals. For economists, the two powerpoint presentations titled “Tips for navigating the road to publishing in graduate school” and “Top ten…
I have recently been receiving some comments suggesting that one way to cut health care costs would be to reduce CEO pay. Would cutting CEO pay be beneficial to society? Ideologically, I believe that markets—and not the government—should determine wages of all workers. If the U.S. government were to put a cap on CEO pay,…
Over the past two decades, the share of total Social Security spending accounted for by Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) has increased from 10 percent in the 1970s to 17 percent today. In 2005, cash payment to DI beneficiaries topped $85 billion. Authors David Autor and Mark Duggan try to explain this phenomenon in their…
In recent years, the federal government has attempted to increase access to government provided health insurance. Between 1984 and 2004, the percentage of non-elderly individual with government provided health insurance rose from 13.5% to 17.5%. Over the same time period, however, the percentage of American without health insurance also rose from 13.7% to 17.8%. In…
Robert Laszewski is the president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates. According to their website, the company is: “A policy and market place consulting firm specializing in assisting its clients through the significant health policy and market change afoot. Clients include health insurance companies, casualty insurance companies, HMOs, Blue Cross organizations, hospitals, and physician groups.”…