by Daniel Becker I posted in 7/2009 on the issue of fixing our healthcare system based on the Massachusetts model. The first was Massachusetts is fixing the fixed healthcare system. The second was a followup to the first: Fixing the fixing. Healthcare Deja vu. The issue was that we are dancing around. All the proposals […]
Some catching up on health care reform progress makes sense as we keep in mind these posts from Beat the Press Dean Baker writes: Second, the story of massive huge future budget deficits has little to do with aging. It is a story of a broken private health care system. If the United States paid […]
I wasn’t going to mention Melissa Mia Hall’s death here—this is economics and politics, not sf—but now it is clear that, as usual, there is an overlap: If she had seen the doctor, most likely he would have suspected more than a pulled muscle and would have ordered a life-saving EKG. As Texas lawyer, writer […]
Health and Economic Development Primer in one easy lesson (via SocProf’s Twitter feed): This is not surprising to see the contrast between the prosperous (at least until now) areas, in green where chronic illnesses prevail but are diseases tied to aging, as opposed to the semi-periphery and periphery where infectious / parasitic diseases are prevalent […]
by Tom Bozzo, cross-posted from Marginal Utility Competition in (increasing) service quality doesn’t reduce costs: Dane County’s two hospitals that deliver babies are each spending close to $40 million to spruce up maternity units and related facilities for a simple reason: Young women are key health care consumers, often deciding where their families will seek […]
The International Federation of Health Plans released its 2010 report today. (PDF here.) The good news is that the problem is clear: Americans pay too much for the same services. The bad news is (1) we’ve known that for years and (2) the factions who are gaining these excessive rents want to keep their sinecures. […]
On Econbrowser last week: The Impact of Health Insurance Reform in Massachusetts The use of emergency rooms for routine care fell, as did hospital admissions for treating preventable conditions, and the proportion of uninsured among hospital inpatients (by 36%), while there was no increase in the growth of hospital costs. From the NBER Digest article […]
HEALTH CARE thoughts: The Taxpayer Advocate and others are unhappy National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson is reported to be unhappy about the major IRS role in the new health care regime. Olsen believes the IRS is already overworked (she used “overtaxed” in her annual report issued this month, a great pun) and needs more money […]
Robert Waldmann told Paul Krugman so About 21 months ago Paul Krugman had a question lower and middle-income Americans would be substantially better off under the Obama plan. But where is the money for health care reform? I proposed an answer there are two puzzles in Obama’s proposals1) How does he plan to pay for […]
Per the Health at a Glance Chart Set, Powerpoint, available here: All OECD countries have achieved universal or near-universal health care coverage, except Turkey, Mexico and the United States And it’s even more impressive when you go to Slide 36 (whose header is quoted above) and realise that the Public Coverage in those three states […]