Archive for the 'Health Care' Category
Talent, Economics 101 and Health Care
Lance on Dec 05 2007 | Filed under: Economics, Health Care, Lance's Page
Personally I find this observation from a paper by Mark Ramseyer unsurprising to say the least:
The Japanese national health insurance provides universal coverage. Necessarily, this entails a subsidy that dramatically raises the demand for medical services. In the face of the increased demand, the government suppresses costs by suppressing prices. By combining extensive biographical (including […]
Whither The Middle Class?
MichaelW on Nov 27 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Election 2008, Health Care, MichaelW's Page, regulation
Hillary and Obama agree on taxing Americans more, they just can’t agree on whether it’s the “middle” or “upper” class that they’re prepared to squeeze for votes (HT: Paul Caron):
Class, always an awkward topic in the United States, made a rare cameo appearance [Ed. note: Rare? Apparently Joel Achenbach is new to politics?] […]
Health Care Innovation: Updated
Lance on Nov 14 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Health Care, Lance's Page
The meme that our private sector, especially our pharmaceutical and medical device companies, has nothing to do with our success as a health care innovator is unfortunately widespread:
The great breakthroughs in the history of medicine, from the development of the polio vaccine to the identification of cancer-killing agents, did not take place because a for-profit […]
Veterans as victims
Lance on Nov 14 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Health Care, Lance's Page, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war
They have to be, so CBS tries to do the numbers. Like most of us however, when numbers fit you take them at face value:
But a five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling rate of suicide, what some call a hidden epidemic, Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian reports exclusively.
“I just felt like […]
Oh, To Be a Fat Cat
Lance on Nov 12 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Health Care, Lance's Page, Society, social science
The New York Times has a nice piece on the latest health research on the impact of weight on health. Of course, like most nutrition and weight related research we should approach it with some caution as John Tierney has discussed at great length (or breadth?)
I actually enjoy the social history in it the best. […]
Lance on Nov 08 2007 | Filed under: Economics, Health Care, Lance's Page
Wilson Mixon notices a rather predictable, but nevertheless ironic aspect data on the cost of health care:
Russ Roberts provides a snapshot of how much third-party payments have grown since 1960.
My computations below are from the table from which he excerpts, with per-capita out-of-pocket expenditures computed and converted to real terms.
Year […]
Lance on Nov 06 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Health Care, Lance's Page
Greg Mankiw responds to questions about his views on health care following his piece on the misuse of statistics in the health care debate:
Q: There has been a lot of blogosphere commentary on your piece. Are you going to respond to it?
A: No. Life is too short. But I will note that I am a […]
Enough Already
Lance on Oct 10 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Health Care, Lance's Page, Libertarianism, Media, regulation
A couple of days ago I linked to McQ and Mark Steyn on the state of knowledge about the “poor family” whose child was used by Senate Democrats in their push to expand the SCHIP program. Here is why:
The media was taking their story and basically pushing the story verbatim, no questions asked, as […]
The Clown Show
Lance on Oct 08 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Health Care, Lance's Page
I was going to bring you up to speed on the ridiculous response the Democrats gave to President Bush’s veto of the expansion of SCHIP and the mainstream media’s clownish and credulous layers of fact checkers, but here are a couple of good summaries of where it stands now. Follow the links.
I especially like this […]
“Universal” Health Care Failing in Japan
Keith_Indy on Sep 28 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Economics, Health Care, Keith's Page
Some interesting observations about universal health care in Japan. I suppose limiting the amount of care the government provides for is one way to hold down health care costs, but I doubt that is what people have in mind when they hear about plans for instituting such a thing here.
If universal care were the […]
Canadian MP comes to US for treatment-Update x2
Lance on Sep 20 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Health Care, Lance's Page
Why? This chart might give a clue:
Seems that not only is the US the best place to be treated for cancer, Canada isn’t even in the top 20. The difference is also startlingly large. Say Anything has more.
Update: See Kav’s comment below for some clarification that my post seems to desperately need.
More: Thanks to QandO […]
Wisconsin’s Experiment
MichaelW on Aug 08 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Health Care, MichaelW's Page
Via McQ (who had posted on the topic previously), I see that Wisconsin is planning to introduce universal statewide health care at an initially estimated cost of about $15.2 Billion per year:
Democrats who run the Wisconsin Senate have dropped the Washington pretense of incremental health-care reform and moved directly to passing a plan to insure […]
