Religious belief has many health benefits. For some people, religious belief reduces existential angst, the reduction in stress leading to lower blood pressure and a stronger immune system. For others, religious belief gives their lives purpose, that purpose motivating them in ways that improve their health. And of course, sometimes religious belief is associated with…
The Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (yes, there is such a thing!) had an outstanding issue dedicated to eating behavior recently. Here is a picture from that issue worth sharing:
Want to know why we continue to spend so much more on healthcare than other countries? We have a price problem, one that experts predict will play a huge role in future healthcare spending: If we want to reign in healthcare spending, we must go after high prices. That means taking on physicians, hospitals, pharma…
Money can undermine our morals. If you don’t believe me, look what happened to a group of four-through-six-year-olds who were brought in for a simple experiment. Researchers asked them to sort objects from a box. Half sorted coins, and half sorted buttons. Then they were asked to do one more thing–try to find their way…
Poverty wreaks havoc on children’s lives, stunting their intellectual development and harming their health. Children raised in poverty experience declines in growth and development, becoming susceptible to numerous otherwise preventable illnesses in the process. Tragically, almost 1 in 5 American children live in poverty: Republicans and Democrats must agree on the importance of helping American…
The free market is supposed to be efficient. Yet employers are throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars, by not giving their employees intelligently designed healthcare benefits that encourage them to shop for affordable lab tests. Right now, when your doctor orders a CBC (complete blood count) and a basic chemistry panel (checking your sodium,…
This picture shows changes in the cost of treating colon cancer, from 1993-2005. It shows unsustainable growth in these expenditures: By unsustainable, however, I do not mean unjustifiable. Patients with colon cancer have much better prognoses in 2005 than 1993, in large part due to advances in chemotherapy. Instead what I mean by unsustainable is…
Paul Ryan is “excited” that the American Health Care Act, as Republicans call their bill, will trim the federal budget by several hundred billion dollars over the next decade. The 24 million people who are expected to lose insurance under the AHCA aren’t excited about the bill, which will cut government spending at their expense,…