Does medical technology increase health care costs?

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Ronald Bailey at Reason reports on a new study that says medical innovation increases life expectancy, not spending. Some excerpts: Columbia University economist Frank Lichtenberg published a new study that suggests advanced medical technologies are not contributing all that much toward rising U.S. health care expenditures. ... Lichtenberg's key finding is that ...

Health “reform” vs. medical technology & innovation

Friday, November 27th, 2009

From a new Cato Institute policy analysis, Bending the Productivity Curve: Why America Leads the World in Medical Innovation: The health care issues commonly considered most important today — controlling costs and covering the uninsured — arguably should be regarded as secondary to innovation, inasmuch as a medical treatment must first ...

Health care bill punishes medical device innovation

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Jeff Scialabba at the Ayn Rand Institute has written a two-part blog post on how HR 3962 would punish medical innovation. Part one is about the benefits of medical devices and the cost of bringing them to market. It begins: America is the world leader in medical device innovation, producing more ...

Should we expect the same treatment as professional athletes?

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Writes Arnold Kling at EconLog (emphasis added): Both the private health insurance industry and the music industry are operating business models that to me appear to be unsustainable and anachronistic. The music industry developed in a world of vinyl records. Our health insurance industry and Medicare developed in an environment in ...

Health 2.0

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Last week's latest Health Wonk Review links in a post about "Health 2.0," and its use in clinical cancer trials: The traditional meaning of Health 2.0, according to Jane Sarasohn-Kahn's "Wisdom of Patients" has been the use of social software and light-weight tools to promote collaboration between patients, their caregivers, medical professionals ...

Kling on health care delivery

Friday, June 20th, 2008

Arnold Kling has written an insightful article on health care delivery at The American: As an economist who has studied healthcare, I am familiar with the statistical evidence that America’s system is inefficient. However, my father’s recent hospitalization and death gave me a new perspective. What I saw in healthcare delivery ...

Does medical technology increase insurance costs?

Monday, May 19th, 2008

Do advances in medical technology drive up insurance premiums? If so, why don't advances in technology increase costs of other products? Last Thursday the Rocky Mountain News reported that "Employers' health insurance costs this year have climbed 12 percent above 2007 levels in Colorado and Wyoming." The article paraphrases Jim Hertel, ...