Stationary Bandit

"Medicare is Government Run Healthcare"

I keep hearing this talking point and, frankly, I do not understand why anyone finds it meaningful.  Presumably, users of Medicare are happy with their service and it is a microcosm of what the proposed legislation will create.  The Republicans are simply scaring people when we have evidence that all will be well.  But I see two problems with this argument.

 

First, there is a problem of scale here.  Try scaling up a fly and see what happens.  What works for a few does not imply that it will work for a large group. 

 

Second, look at the balance sheet of Medicare.  It can offer satisfactory service

because of its soft budget constraint.  If it runs out of money, no big deal.  Comparing their outcomes with the private sector is like comparing apples and oranges.  If Medicare had to raise its funds voluntarily, would their satisfaction ratings remain the same?  I doubt it.

What about the supply side?

Best I can tell the health care “crisis” is about rising prices in the presence of increasing demand due to an aging population, increasing income over the long-run, etc.  So let’s decrease demand through forms of rationing and price controls.  But what about a few reforms on the supply side to decrease prices?  Here are a few that should be on the table.

 

1.  Reduce input prices to suppliers of health care services through legal reforms such as losers pays.  Doctors spend a ridiculous amount on insurance.  One doctor I recently spoke to said he spends nearly one-quarter of his income on insurance.  In addition to lowering costs it would encourage more people to become doctors because costs have fallen.

 

2.  Expand the number of slots in medical schools and increase the supply of doctors.  If the new slots cost too much, offer subsidized student loans.  How much would this cost relative to the current proposals?  Of course, it has an obvious impact on doctors’ income and will meet with an expected response. 

 

3.  Make on common market for health insurance across the country.  Allow health insurance firms to compete across state line.  There are more than 1000 health insurance companies but laws prohibit them from selling in every state.  More competition reduces prices.

A Quick Thought on the Relatively Efficiency of Medicare

From CNN.

Plainclothes investigators sent to test security at federal buildings in four U.S. cities were successful in smuggling bomb components through guard posts at all 10 of the sites they visited, according to a government report.

The investigators then assembled the bombs in restrooms and freely entered numerous government offices while carrying the devices in briefcases, the report said.

If security does not check for bombs, then why should I expect public sector empoyees to check for fraud.

Measles Deaths Down

Worldwide measles deaths had dropped 48 percent in six years as immunisation efforts reached more children in sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations said on Friday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said the fall in deaths to 454,000 in 2004 from 871,000 in 1999 was "an outstanding public health success story".

Story here.  The biggest decline took place in Africa.

Polio Eliminated in Some African Countries

The World Health Organization reports that polio has been eradicated in Benin; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Ghana; Guinea; Ivory Coast; Mali and Togo.  However, polio remains endemic in six countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt.  Story here.

Text Messaging AIDS Awareness

It is being tried in Nigeria.

Nine million young people in Nigeria are to be sent text messages on Wednesday to raise awareness about HIV/Aids.  The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is launching its Nigerian campaign because it has the third highest number of people with the disease.  Unicef is aiming to take advantage of the surge in mobile phone use in Nigeria over the last six years.

Story here.

Marijuana Grows Neurons

A synthetic cannabinoid -- similar to the compounds found in marijuana, but substantially stronger -- causes the growth of new neurons and reduces anxiety and depression, investigators at the University of Saskatchewan here reported.

And researchers at the University of Calgary said they've found evidence that the brain contains so-called CB₂ cannabinoid receptors, previously seen in immune tissue but thought not to exist in brain tissue. The discovery, they added, could lead to new drugs to treat nausea associated with cancer or AIDS.

Story here.

Hope on the AIDS Front

The HIV virus appears to be less fit than it was in the late 1980s.

The HIV virus that causes AIDS, the fatal disease of the immune system, is becoming less aggressive, researchers have said in a landmark new study, amid surging speculation about the implications for the global fight against a pandemic that has killed an estimated 30 million people worldwide.

Researchers at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, compared HIV-1 samples from 1986-89 and 2002-03 and found that 75 per cent of the newer samples appeared less fit than those of 15 years ago both in terms of spread within individuals and transmission to others.

Story here.

McDonalds Diet

My younger brother thought the claims made in "Super Size Me" were outrageous. He conjectured that eating an all McDonlads diet would lead to weight loss.  The scant evidence appears to be in his favor:

At a cost of $9 to $11 for three meals, the single mother of two [Merab Morgan] can afford it. She travels throughout the Raleigh area working construction jobs, and she has never failed to find a McDonald's somewhere. The whole process of ordering and eating a meal takes maybe 5 minutes, and she mostly eats in her car. Sometimes she hits the drive-through only once, ordering enough food to last the whole day.

What has been the result?

Since April 22, when Morgan launched her diet with a Sausage Burrito and a medium Diet Coke, she's lost 33 pounds, putting her at about 195 pounds. At 5 feet, 9 inches tall, she's dropped from a size 22 or 24 to a size 15. The size 2X and 3X T-shirts she used to wear look like dresses on her. And despite her friends' fears about skyrocketing cholesterol, she feels great.

Story here.  For more evidence, see Leslie Sayer's webpage.

Hope in the Fight Against AIDS

In a potentially major breakthrough in the campaign against AIDS, French and South African researchers have apparently found that male circumcision reduces by about 70% the risk that men will contract HIV through intercourse with infected women.

Other than abstinence and safer sex, almost nothing has been proved to reduce the sexual spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. World- wide, the major route of HIV transmission for many years has been heterosexual sex.

Vaccine developers have said they would consider an AIDS vaccine with just 30% efficacy useful. But so far, no effective vaccine against the disease has been developed, leaving AIDS workers desperate for another tool to help them stem the tide of new infections, estimated at almost five million last year. 

Here is the story. (subscription required)