This is a painful story to write.
A close friend of mine, in his 40’s, had a persistent light cough for many months. Finally, when he had an X-ray taken, it showed a large tumor on his lungs. He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. As a non-smoker and strapping, physically fit man, he was shocked, as you can imagine.
He went to his non-Boston-based medical practice, and he was told …
Let’s face it. Health care is an odd field. Costs are unknown or indecipherable. Prices for the services offered are hidden from consumers. Likewise, the value (efficacy, quality, safety) of the services received is hidden from consumers. In no sense does it represent other markets, in which transparency of these elements reigns and which therefore have a better chance of reaching the “efficient market” described by economists.
In such an environment, …
If there is anything about economics that has been proven over and over, it is that price controls do not work. The unintended consequences are usually worse than the problem that led to the solution in the first place.
Massachusetts legislators, feeling the frustration of higher insurance premiums, are now considering a bill to limit doctor and hospital reimbursement payments to 110% of Medicare rates, or perhaps some other percentage …
Here’s an excerpt from a lovely little book by John D. Barrow called One Hundred Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know; Math Explains the World. This selection has a great lesson about statistical inference. The chapter is entitled, “Why does the other queue always move faster?”
You will have noticed that when you join a queue at the airport or the post office, the other queues always seem to …
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