Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
How has President Trump’s recent executive orders reshaped the US healthcare system? Below, I summarize the healthcare-related Executive Orders that were released this week: ACA premium subsidies will be reduced: Trump rescinded Biden’s executive order that led to longer enrollment periods for Affordable Care Act plans in most states. In short, in 2021, temporary subsidies…
This is the subtitle of a study by Rebaudo et al. (2024) that aims to examine how different factors impact individual willingness to provide caregiving. The study is focused on potential caregivers in Germany. Before we get to the statistical analysis, first some background: Informal Caregiving in Germany The article provides a nice summary of…
Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. has become more and more partisan and the views of both Democrats and Republicans have become less moderate over time. Is that the case with respect to views on health policy? A paper in JAMA last week by Blendon et al. (2021) conducted probability-based national surveys on four topics…
Improvement in survival (a.k.a. efficiacy) clearly are important, but what other factors matter? According to a systematic literature review by MacLeod, Harris and Mahal (2016), these factors include: patients favour funding for cancer medicines that improve health outcomes demonstrated by ‘clinical efficacy’ [Oh et al.], ‘prolonged survival’ [Goldman et al., Seabury et al. Lakdawalla et al.] and/or…
How does President Obama propose to change the budget in the coming year? Here are his key proposals. $500m for mental health. The budget includes $500 million in new mandatory funding to for individuals with serious mental illness. The funding would be used to support”…additional states in the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration; increases access to…
For years, Republicans have campaigned to repeal Obamacare. The biggest question in their campaign is what to replace it with. One year ago, Republicans unveiled the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility, and Empowerment Act (Patient CARE). Now, the Republicans have a new plan. What’s in the new plan? The Healthcare Economist reviews the highlights. No…
In a series of papers, Coile, Milligan and Wise look at Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World. In the sixth installment of the series, the authors look specifically at disability programs. Although stereotypically one would believe that most people exit the workforce due to choice and rely on Social Security, job pensions, and…
Time Magazine on the economic boom currently happening in Washington, DC: “Yet the diversity of the Washington economy is an illusion, for each of its business sectors is to some degree a creature of the region’s single great industry—the federal government. According to a 2007 report by the Tax Foundation, for every dollar in taxes…
The most recent Federal Budget leaves much to be desired. There are spending cuts. The Economist reports that although Mr Obama’s team projects that his budget will cause the deficit will fall “…from a post-war record 11% of GDP in the current fiscal year to 3.1% by 2021. That would stabilise the debt, albeit at…
Most physicians, public health officials and economists believe that most individuals do not receive sufficient levels of preventive care. Only half of American adults receive all recommended screening and preventive care. The Partnership for Prevention has a plan to increase preventive care utilization. The organization proposes introducing: “..federally funded insurance programs [that] would provide highly…