Crony Capitalism

Recently, we have seen a shift towards the left in Latin America. Socialistic presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia (who just nationalized Bolivia’s national gas industry) and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela both enjoy much popular support. Brazilian president Lula Da Silva has a background as a union leader and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina also rose to…

Failure of Medical Malpractice Law: Part II

Recently, I wrote a post regarding the inefficiency of the Medical Malpractice system. Both Brennan, Sox and Burstin (1996) and Studdert, Mello and Brennan (2004) found that not only were there many frivolous suits brought to court, but even more prevalent was the phenomenon that individuals who suffered negligent care did not sue (only 3%…

Computerized Drug Ordering Reduces Chemotherapy Errors

Here’s one for The Healthcare IT Guy… MedPage Today reports that “Computerized Drug Ordering Reduces Chemotherapy Errors.” Some excerpts: Using the system reduced the likelihood that a child would get the wrong daily chemotherapy dose by 74%, and virtually eliminated the risk of dose calculation errors, wrote Christopher U. Lehmann, M.D., of Johns Hopkins, and…

Dentist Shortage in Britain

British teeth are not famed for their beauty.  There are countless jokes about British teeth on television and at comedy clubs.  Even in Mexico, protruding, discolored and generally unfortunate teeth are known as “dientes de ingles.” A serious shortage of dentists in England, however, is causing this stereotype to become reality.   The New York…

Healthcare Stats

The Healthy Policy blog has two posts (one for the insured and one for the uninsured) which offer a compendium of statistics of these two groups.  Some interesting statistics: The number of employers providing health insurance has dropped 9% in five years; from 69% in 2000 to 60% in 2005. The average insured person already…

A Heart Attack system in San Diego

You feel an uncomfortable pressure, squeezing the center of your chest.  The pain spreads to your shoulders, your neck and then your arms.  As you begin to perspire, you are suddenly overwhelmed with lightheadedness and nausea.  You are having a heart attack and you need to find help soon. If you were living in San…

Update regarding “Drugs: U.S. versus Mexico”

Earlier I posted that Mexico would pass a bill decriminalizing drug use.  Late last night, howeer,  President Vicente Fox decided not to approve the Mexican law which would have decriminalized minor drug use.  The Chicago Tribune (“Mexico’s Fox retreats…“) implied that this reversal was due significant pressure exerted by the U.S. on Mr. Fox.