September, 2007

How To Pay For Quality

by Robin Hanson

September 26th, 2007

David, Alan, and Dana’s first comments focused on how to better promote helpful over harmful medicine, and I tried to steer them back to the effect of simple crude cuts.  But on this our last discussion day, let me address this quality issue, by describing a completely supply-based approach to Medicare quality.
Imagine each person has [...]

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Beware Double-Standards

by Robin Hanson

September 26th, 2007

Consider a health policy issue like child car seats in the U.S., mosquito netting in the third world, preschool education for poor children, or the immunization of immigrants. Imagine that for this issue there were many good studies over several decades, including some recent studies. Imagine that after controlling for many factors, these [...]

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Understanding Differences in Aggregate Outcomes

by Dana Goldman

September 23rd, 2007

I suggested supply-side differences might explain aggregate differences in how we ‘produce’ health. Robin Hanson replied that he would like to see the system become more efficient. But what if the regional differences are due to demand-side factors? Maybe people in Miami prefer surgery, and people in Minnesota prefer medical management. [...]

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Yes, There Are Costs Of Change

by Robin Hanson

September 23rd, 2007

Dana Goldman suggests “a catastrophic health plan, with first dollar coverage exceptions for those therapies that can be shown to be clinically efficacious and reduce total health care spending” and asks if I’d “be in favor of subsidizing this coverage for the low-income uninsured, with the subsidies paid for by eliminating the tax exclusion for [...]

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