John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis has an excellent column abut health care innovation. He summarizes:
Wherever there is third-party payment [insurance, a health plan, Medicare, Medicaid], the goal of innovation is to produce more products that qualify for reimbursement, even if the effects on patient ...
From Paul Hsieh:
Recent advances in biotechnology have allowed private companies to offer affordable genetic testing directly to consumers, to help them determine their risks of developing problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and various forms of cancer. In response, the U.S. government has told these companies ...
For those interested in Colorado politics ( Colorado HB 1330) and medical privacy, check out this summary of a recent study by published by the National Center for Policy Analysis.
Although many proponents discuss the perceived benefits of health information technology (HIT), missing from the debate is an honest ...
From Paul Hsieh in Pajamas Media:
[A] government that penalizes innovation could dramatically slow the pace of medical progress, leading to millions of preventable deaths. And this may be one of the worst long-range consequences of the recently passed ObamaCare health legislation.
One of the many new taxes imposed by ...
From the Associated Press:
People younger than 35 who are buying their own insurance on the individual market would pay $42 a month more, according to an analysis by Rand Health, a research division of the nonpartisan Rand Corp.
The analysis, conducted for The Associated Press, examined the effect ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
He would, suggests Charles Hooper at Forbes.com. Some selections:
Say a biotech company is developing a new drug for breast cancer. My consulting firm, Objective Insights, looks at the financial value of the project. If the expected value--probability-adjusted value--of the project is negative, we suggest discontinuing development. Often, millions of dollars ...
