Over at Cato Unbound the health care debate rages on. David Cutler and Dana Goldman reply to Robin Hanson’s original article by almost agreeing with him. They both begin by acknowledging that much of our current health care spending is wasted. The gist of their criticism is that when you reduce health care consumption then …
Category Archive: Health economics
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/20/where-have-all-the-socialists-gone/
Sep 17 2007
An alternative ‘fat tax’
Matt’s talked in the past about fuel taxes to reduce emissions and reduce the time cost of congestion. This paper suggests that there may be further benefits to a fuel tax. Using US data the author estimates that …a $1 increase in gasoline prices would reduce obesity by 15% in the U.S., saving 16,000 lives …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/17/an-alternative-fat-tax/
Sep 11 2007
Is medicine a money pit?
Robin Hanson suggests on CATO Unbound that much of the health care spending governments do is a waste of money. Citing the RAND study on healthcare he says: The experiment’s random assignments allowed it to clearly determine causality. Being assigned a low price for medicine caused patients to consume about 30% (or $300) more in …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/
Sep 03 2007
Cigarette taxes
An Otago university study that was sponsored by anti-smoking groups found that cigarette taxes should be increased. We know that an externality tax is a good thing, however 70% of the price of cigarettes is made of of taxes already. The question then is, do we need more cigarette taxes to set the social cost …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/03/cigarette-taxes/
Jul 27 2007
Fast food and health standards
As I was waiting in line to grab some McDonalds before going to see the latest Harry Potter movie I got to thinking about why the line was so long. In fact, I got to thinking about why, when there are other perfectly good foods around the food court, was half the place lining up …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/07/27/fast-food-and-health-standards/
Jul 20 2007
Public sector Health spending
This article discusses public sector health spending in quite a damning way. Does anyone have any ideas how government spending on health could be more effective? Or does anyone think health spending is effective? I might post on this later if anyone convinces me of their opinion
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/07/20/public-sector-health-spending/
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