The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Health Care on May 16th, 2013
If we are to be generous to the ideas of those who are concerned about obesity in America, you would argue that there are two reasons for the worry. First, people might reasonably be concerned about the impacts of your obesity on them. In other words, there are external costs of obesity that the obese themselves are not taking [...]
Posted in Health Care, Voluntary Society, Welfare State on May 10th, 2013
Without much comment, I suggest you read the interview Wonkblog does with the patient. The entire tone, the selection of the interview candidate, the questions not asked, etc. encapsulates almost everything that can possibly be wrong with (insert noun here). If I were a betting person, I might even bet that the interview was made [...]
Posted in Corporatism, Education, Health Care, Voluntary Society on May 10th, 2013
In this week’s episode of the Commons Chronicles, I bring to you … the office copy machine. I don’t make too heavy use of it, but I can assure you that when I do, I make lots of copies – mostly to print exams for my large classes. I typically need 600-1000 sheets of paper to print [...]
Posted in Health Care, Politics, Taxation, Welfare State, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 12th, 2013
The town and county portion of my property tax receipt came in the mail today. (This comprises about 1/3 of my total property tax bill – the government schools take the other 2/3). I found their new itemization of uses of tax funds to be interesting. Years ago I noticed that in my TOWN offices, [...]
Posted in ethical foundations, Government Gone Wild, Government Thuggery, Health Care, incentives, Price Controls, Socialism, Taxation, Unintended Consequences, Voluntary Society, Welfare State, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 11th, 2013
I usually hate infographics and here is another one just littered with reasons to go crazy. But focus only on the very bottom: The changes Brill suggests would allow the US to provide better care at lower costs without substituting the kind of government-provider system typical in comparison countries. Holy smokes. This is the previous [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Health Care on Mar 25th, 2013
The walls of our campus rumble and resonate with claims to the moral imperative of health care as a human right. Let’s not take the time today to discuss whether or not this is a “correct” view to hold or is in fact compatible with other views folks hold, rather, let’s play on “their” turf [...]
Posted in Environment, Health Care on Mar 11th, 2013
In today’s pile of economic research papers (you know, the stuff that at least tries to use rigorous tools to test theories and provide evidence): Something in the Water: Contaminated Drinking Water and Infant Health by Janet Currie, Joshua S. Graff Zivin, Katherine Meckel, Matthew J. Neidell, Wolfram Schlenker - NBER Working Paper #18876 This paper provides estimates [...]
Posted in Health Care, Methodology on Feb 12th, 2013
Here is a New York Times story that is sure to stun you: For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers — sepsis, burns and trauma. As a result, years [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Government Gone Wild, Health Care on Feb 1st, 2013
Via Tyler Cowen, here is one of the many, many, many emerging stories about the implementation of the PPACA: Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour. Union leaders say many of the law’s requirements will drive [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Health Care on Jan 23rd, 2013
Back in my early days I spent a lot of time predicting what would happen after Massachusetts passed comprehensive health care reform. It sucks being right sometimes. On the bright side, I no longer live there. He’s right about that: Health care was 23% of the state fisc in 2000, and 25% in 2006, but [...]
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