Economics Behaving Badly
George Loewenstein and I have an Op-Ed in the New York Times today. Check it out, and feel free to add your comments.
Similar Posts
Behavioral Economics and Obesity
ByadminIn collaboration with several co-authors, including Peggy Liu – a marketing PhD student here at Fuqua – I just published a paper on how behavioral economics can help us think about better ways to combat obesity. Feel free to check it out. And feel free to send along your thoughts, too. Using Behavioral Economics to…
Penalizing Smokers So They Will Quit
ByadminRecently my employer, Duke University, announced it would be charging $10 more per month to offer health insurance to smokers (see story here). Duke’s policy has a couple motivations. Smokers get sick you see, and those smoking related illnesses cost Duke money. So it’s only fair to pass some of those expenses… (Read the rest and view…
Should We Care About Hospital Prices?
ByadminI have been writing quite a bit about healthcare price transparency lately. And so have a lot of other people. Many of us have been pointing to insane variation in how much hospitals charge for their services. Walk across the street, and you might see the price of a routine healthcare service rise two or threefold. But…
When Farmer Joe Gets Sick, Here's Who He Sees
ByadminThe U.S. isn’t exactly overflowing with primary care physicians. The job pays poorly compared to most medical specialties, while often requiring mastery of a fraud range of material. In fact, with expansion of insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, many experts worried that it would become increasingly difficult for people to gain access to…
Simple Economics, Complicated Medicine
ByadminSeven days into the patient’s hospital stay, his doctors realized they had fought a losing battle. The patient, an overweight smoker with a touch of diabetes, had come to the emergency department with shortness of breath. After a series of tests in the emergency room, he was given a dose of antibiotics for possible pneumonia…
A 12 Year Old Figures Out the Importance of the Health Insurance Mandate
ByadminSee a video where I talk to my twelve year old son about health insurance, unrehearsed, and try to see whether he will be able to figure out the importance of the health insurance mandate. I think you will agree that this is an idea even a sixth grader can understand. Which is sad, because most people hold a strong opinion about this topic without grasping even it’s most basic strengths and weaknesses.
Now if the Obama team will work on helping American adults understand the benefits of getting everyone to get insurance!