Let’s face it – us men are disgusting. So public policy experts are left to figure out how to keep us from behaving in our normally disgusting manner. Here’s one approach (thanks to Geoff Riley for bringing it to my attention):
Think it will work?
All else equal, it would be wonderful if hospitals had an incentive to provide high quality care. It does not seem fair to pay the same amount of money to a hospital that does a great job of caring for its pneumonia patients and one that does a lousy job. For the most part, however,…
The United States far outspends peer countries on healthcare. When American politicians complain about these high healthcare costs, they often vilify pharmaceutical and insurance companies for profiting at the expense of the general public. As I wrote earlier, such vilification is misguided, pushing too much of the blame on individual actors rather than on the…
Getting relatively simple procedures is much more expensive in the US than elsewhere. Take the cost of an appendectomy: Or having a baby: Or having a baby by C-section, a more invasive procedure that is not only more expensive in the US than elsewhere, but is often more common: These prices beg for government regulation!
Want to know why we spent so much on healthcare in United States? There are lots of reasons. Our population is aging, the rate of diabetes is rising, and the healthcare industry keeps developing wonderful but expensive new technologies to treat our ailments. But more than anything, we have a price problem. It’s price increases…
Often great science depends on keen observation. Darwin built his theory of evolution on detailed observations of everything from birds to beetles. Jane Goodall revolutionized our understanding of primate behavior by staring at chimpanzees for hours and days. But not just staring at them, noticing them. She saw things most observers would not have picked…
I love behavioral science. I love public policy. And I am obsessed with music. So you can see why I think the nudge pictured below may be the coolest thing on the planet! It encourages drivers to drive at an appropriate speed, so they can hear music created by their passage over the road: I…