$6,500 Health Care Stealth Tax
As part of the New York Times' Economic Scene series, David Leonhardt exposes the hidden tax in our current health care system: The United States now devotes one-sixth of its economy to medicine. Divvy that up, and health care will cost the typical household roughly...
Health Care Costs: Read Atul Gawande
In his blog post on Blue Oregon, Steve Novick joins President Obama and former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber in declaring that we can't do health reform without addressing the cost of care. Here's how he begins: As the health care battle rages on, I suggest that...
Massachusetts Panel Backs Radical Shift in Health Payments
From today's New York Times: A high-level state commission recommended Thursday that Massachusetts seek to rein in health care costs by radically restructuring the way doctors and hospitals are paid. The commission's action kicks off the second phase of a health care...
San Francisco: Taking a Bite Out of Health Care Costs
In a blog post in the Huffington Post, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom writes about the successes of the city's expaned health care program: But in San Francisco we are going far beyond the notion of health care as just a way of treating sickness. We are saving...
Massachusetts Takes a Step Back From Health Care for All
[UPDATE: From the New York Times (7/17/09): A high-level state commission recommended Thursday that Massachusetts seek to rein in health care costs by radically restructuring the way doctors and hospitals are paid. Read more.] In a real-life test of what happens when...
Why We Must Ration Health Care
When should a health care system that is trying to maximize the health of an entire population deny an individual a specific treatment? What is the value of extending a life for a day, or a year? In a long and excellent article for the New York Times, Peter Singer, a...
Health Care’s Infectious Losses
This came in recently from Jonathan Ater, who served as vice-chair of the Oregon Health Fund Board: The following op-ed from the New York Times makes the same point that the Oregon Health Fund Board made: the problem with health care is not simply a financial problem,...
In Poll, Wide Support for Government Run Health
Today's New York Times reports on a poll it conducted with CBS News. The poll found that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care...
Obama’s Difficult Choices on Medicare
Sounding a lot like John Kizthaber, George Mason University economics professor Tyler Cowen wrote the following for the New York Times (June 13th, 2009): Something’s Got to Give in Medicare Spending MEDICARE expenditures threaten to crush the federal budget, yet the...
Following the Money in Health Care Debate
This article, from today's New York Times, needs no introduction. Here's an excerpt: Roughly $2.5 trillion is at stake, the amount the nation spends each year on health care, nearly a fifth of the American economy. How that money is divided up — or prevented from...
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