Every once in a while people make the point that much of what eventually became Obamacare came from, of all places, the Heritage Foundation
Archive for the ‘Health Economics’ Category
The Heritage Foundation on Health, 1989
Monday, July 31st, 2017deaths of despair in the US and the UK
Tuesday, July 25th, 2017British-American economist Angus Deaton has an excellent column in today’s Financial Times. The main point he makes is that Britain is not likely to experience the ‘deaths of despair’ we see in the USA for two reasons. First, access to painkillers is more restricted in Britain. Secondly, and more importantly, median wages in recent decades have increased in the UK, but not in the USA. (more…)
on the Republican replacement for Obamacare
Friday, July 21st, 2017Sherry Glied, dean of New York University
US healthcare reform is on life support
Wednesday, July 12th, 2017Why is it so difficult for the Republicans to replace Obamacare? Edward Luce reasons that Obamacare is very conservative, and there are no viable conservative alternatives available. During the campaign, I recall that Donald Trump promised to replace Obamacare with a single-payer system, like Medicare in Canada, or the National Health Service in Scotland, but I haven’t heard any support from him for this option since taking office. For that matter, Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration in the USA are single-payer programmes, so I don’t understand why a single-payer option is anathema to Republicans.
The dilemma is that Republican lawmakers can only agree on the first half of their vow to
HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Monday, July 10th, 2017Despite massive expenditure, South Africa has been unable to control its HIV epidemic.
Ten years ago, [with more than 11 per cent of the population infected by HIV,] South Africa unveiled a long-term plan to tackle its HIV problem. ….
Today HIV prevalence is about 12 per cent, partly reflecting the fact that those with the disease are living longer thanks to better treatment. ….
[But the plan is in trouble.] Even as it aims to reduce a persistently high level of new HIV infections to 100,000 a year by 2022, from 270,000 last year, many civil society groups say that South Africa is falling behind the latest thinking on HIV prevention …. ….
With just over half of the HIV-infected population of 7m taking ARVs [antiretrovirals], South Africa already runs the largest such programme in the world. ….
Clinicians speak of an urgent need to break a
deaths of despair in the USA
Sunday, June 11th, 2017After a century of decreases, the overall death rate for American adults aged 25-44 years rose 8.2 percent between 2010 and 2015. The disturbing trend seems to have continued in 2016.
The opioid epidemic that has ravaged life expectancy among economically stressed white Americans is taking a rising toll among blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, driving up the overall rate of death among Americans in the prime of their lives.
Since the beginning of this decade, death rates have risen among people between the ages of 25 and 44 in virtually every racial and ethnic group and almost all states, according to a Washington Post analysis. ….
The [death] rate is adjusted for the nation
the high price of pills for cancer
Monday, May 1st, 2017The Financial Times has a must-read column in today’s paper on the pricing of drugs for treatment of cancer. The article is gated, but those who register without charge are allowed to download three FT articles each month. This article is long, and very informative. It might be a good use of one of your free downloads this month. (more…)
the long lives of South Koreans
Saturday, April 22nd, 2017I somehow missed this interesting column from Bryan Harris, chief of the FT’s Seoul bureau. Asia is amazing. The continent is changing rapidly, and not just in China. (more…)
the US epidemic of “deaths of despair”
Thursday, March 30th, 2017The 23 March 2017 Brookings paper,
charts of the day
Thursday, March 23rd, 2017The US is experiencing an epidemic of high mortality, concentrated in middle-aged White, non-Hispanic persons with high school education or less. This is self-inflicted harm, and is frightening. It is Trump’s political base, and conditions are deteriorating quickly.
For further information, see Alison Burke, “Working class white Americans are now dying in middle age at faster rates than minority groups“, Brookings Institution, 23 March 2017.
Case and Deaton’s full paper can be downloaded here.