Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
This is a common question I receive, often with the implicit assumption that prices in the US are too high. One key question to consider is, what are we trying to optimize? Tyler Cowen has a very good and brief post talking about drug prices and makes the case that (i) the supply of new…
I ask this question in economic terms. Luxury goods are defined as goods that increase as a share of a person’s (or country’s) budget as income increases; necessity goods are defined as goods that decrease as a share of a person’s (or country’s) budget as income increases. There is actually mixed evidence on the topic…
In econ-speak, we are looking to measure the elasticity of plan switching with respect to premium increases. This elasticity is in essence how much would a 10% change in premium affect the likelihood of plan choice change. If the answer is 10%, the elasticity is -1. If the answer is a 5% increase in plan…