I was recently questioned about the future of the NHS, during a live debate on the BBC Radio 4 programme Moral Maze, on 9 July 2014. One of the panelists took me to task for being a “bean counter”. I… Read More »Bean counting and the NHS
Steven Levitt and his trusty Freakonomics sidekick were invited by David Cameron to advise on health policy, as they recount in their latest book. Apparently the PM walked out on them. Levitt has kindly given us some more details on his proposal for British healthcare. It consisted of… Read More »Recommended reading for Steven Levitt
The use of labour market outcomes in the Value Based Pricing scheme is inconsistent with the concept of value This year, the Department of Health in the UK will begin using a new system of ‘value based pricing’ (VBP) to… Read More »The ‘value’ in value based pricing
It is one of the curious ironies of history that ideas which tend to destroy also help to rebuild. Innovative financial instruments played a key role in the 2007-2008 financial crisis that not only dented economic growth worldwide, but also… Read More »Social impact bonds: is an ounce of (bond) prevention worth more than a pound of (budgetary) cure
At the beginning of my PhD I was quite stuck to find good data. I wanted data with good measures of mental health, physical health, employment, income, small area indicators and standard controls like age, gender, education and so on.… Read More »Longitudinal datasets of potential interest to health economists
It was recently proposed that, here in the UK, foreigners should start having to pay towards their health care because of the apparent budgetary pressure from ‘health tourists’. Let’s be clear upfront; this isn’t a problem. If you believe the media, ‘health tourism’… Read More »No borders, no nations, no user charges
In 1976, Robert Lucas wrote a paper that articulated a common criticism of macroeconomic policy-making based on historical data. The essence of the critique was that, since the parameters of macroeconometric models were not structural, they were liable to change… Read More »The Lucas critique and hospital quality
This month’s (inaugural) meeting will take place Monday 1st October, at 8pm London time. That’ll be 3pm in New York City and 3am on Tuesday in Hong Kong. Join the Facebook event here. For more information about the Health Economics… Read More »#HEJC for 01/10/2012
Why should we consider health equity? The rationale for treating health as a special good rests on the idea that a certain level of health is a precondition for achieving any of the other outcomes in life that we value.… Read More »The role of healthcare in promoting health equity
Now that the Health and Social Care Bill is the Health and Social Care Act, more focus will be placed on sources of information regarding provider performance. In order for patients to make informed choices about where they wish to… Read More »Making conclusions about provider quality