Showing archive for: “Public Goods & Regulation in Health Economics”
Making Sure New Medicines Are Safe, Effective, and Approved Quickly: A Theoretical Approach
This is the first in what will be a series of posts discussing how new medicines are introduced and regulated in the United States, and how the status quo could be improved. As will be established over the course of the series, the current system is slow and leads to poor outcomes for patients. Why ... Making Sure New Medicines Are Safe, Effective, and Approved Quickly: A Theoretical Approach
Commentary: In the race for a COVID-19 vaccine, how do we balance risk and safety?
(Ed. Note: the following is an excerpt from a piece published by the Chicago Tribune on Oct. 16, 2020. Click here to read the full piece) No matter your Twitter feed, “vaccines have been one of the greatest public health tools to prevent disease,” as The New York Times explained in January… Many are terrified ... Commentary: In the race for a COVID-19 vaccine, how do we balance risk and safety?
Policy Diversity Saves Lives: Unmasking Confirmation Bias Caused by a Virus
The brutal toll of the coronavirus pandemic has delivered dramatic public policies. The United States has closed institutions, banned crowds, postponed non-emergency medical procedures and instituted social distancing. All to “flatten the curve” of illness. The measures are expensive, but there is no obvious way to better save lives. There is evidence that, even without ... Policy Diversity Saves Lives: Unmasking Confirmation Bias Caused by a Virus
More Corona Testing Is Necessary, But Not Sufficient, To Get Us Back on Our Feet. Verification of Good Health Is Also Required
In these harrowing times, it is a natural to fixate on the problem of testing—and how the United States got so far behind South Korea on this front—as a means to arrest the spread of Coronavirus. Under this remedy, once testing becomes ubiquitous, the government could track and isolate everyone who has been in recent ... More Corona Testing Is Necessary, But Not Sufficient, To Get Us Back on Our Feet. Verification of Good Health Is Also Required
Subsidies to “Flatten the Curve”
Summary: Trying to quarantine everyone until a vaccine is available doesn’t seem feasible. In addition, restrictions mainly delay when the epidemic explodes, e.g., see previous post on Flattening the Curve. In this paper, we propose subsidies to both individuals and businesses, to better align private incentives with social goals, while leaving it up to individuals and ... Subsidies to “Flatten the Curve”
What Does “Flattening the Curve” Mean?
Policy makers are using the term to describe the effects of social distancing and travel restrictions. In this post, we use a cellular automata model of infection to show how they might do this. DISCLAIMER: THIS IS AN UNREALISTIC MODEL, FOR TEACHING PURPOSES ONLY. The images below are from a cellular automata model of the spread of a disease ... What Does “Flattening the Curve” Mean?
The economic impact of smoke-free air laws on the restaurant and hospitality industries
The puzzling lack of economic impacts One focus in the analysis of smoke-free air (SFA) laws has been on measuring the impact smoking bans have on the restaurant and hospitality industries. The overwhelming or “consensus” result of this research is that bans impose no adverse impact on industry revenues and employment levels (Scollo et al., ... The economic impact of smoke-free air laws on the restaurant and hospitality industries
Critics of health insurance mergers misapply the evidence and misinterpret the market
As regulatory review of the merger between Aetna and Humana hits the homestretch, merger critics have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to the deal. This is particularly true of a subset of healthcare providers concerned about losing bargaining power over insurers. Fortunately for consumers, the merger appears to be well on its way to ... Critics of health insurance mergers misapply the evidence and misinterpret the market
What Would the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Say About Healthcare.gov?
In yesterday’s hearings on the disastrous launch of the federal health insurance exchanges, contractors insisted that part of the problem was a last-minute specification from the government: the feds didn’t want people to be able to “window shop” for health insurance until they had created a profile and entered all sorts of personal information. That’s ... What Would the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Say About Healthcare.gov?
Holtz-Eakin & Smith on The Economics of ObamaCare
Douglas Holtz-Eakin and my former George Mason colleague and Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith are in the WSJ today discussing the economic wisdom and constitutionality of ObamaCare. From the WSJ: The Obama administration defends the mandate on the ground that a person’s decision to not buy health insurance affects commerce by materially increasing the costs of ... Holtz-Eakin & Smith on The Economics of ObamaCare
The Administration’s Rigorous Defense of the Affordable Care Act
In yesterday’s Washington Post, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius makes an impassioned plea for skeptics to reconsider the Affordable Care Act. Secretary Sebelius argues that the Act will bring down health care costs by, among other things, assisting those who cannot afford health insurance coverage. Although expanding health insurance coverage is a worthy ... The Administration’s Rigorous Defense of the Affordable Care Act
Medical Devices
The GAO has recently issued a report on medical devices. The thrust of the report is that “high-risk” medical devices do not receive enough scrutiny from the FDA and that recalls are not handled well. This report and other evidence indicates that the FDA is likely to require more testing of devices. As of now, ... Medical Devices
