The Cost Of Dying In The US Is Exorbitant. Behavioral Economics Explains Why.

Bypeter February 25, 2020

Six-year old Kimmy Merrill fell into an abandoned well outside of Oswega, Pennsylvania, her cries unnoticed in the remote countryside until her mother Susan wandered within earshot of the well. Unable to save Kimmy even with the help of local firefighters, Susan pleaded for rescue workers to dig a hole parallel to the well. Desperate townspeople gathered around nervously as the night temperature began to plummet. The Oswega mayor finally took control of the situation, announcing that “the Oswega emergency council has determined that the cost of digging a parallel hole is prohibitive. Sorry folks, but we’re going to have to let the girl die.”

Unbelievable, right? Of course it is. I made up Kimmy’s story to highlight a fundamental truth about healthcare spending – when it comes to life-or-death decisions, cold-hard economic thinking rarely applies.

Currently, one percent of patients accounts for more than 20% of US healthcare spending. Despite efforts to provide hospice services to people near the end of life, many people are not admitted to hospice until just days before their death.

(To read the rest of the article, please visit Forbes.)

Critical Decisions | Health Care Cost

Helping Your Doctor Help You: An Interview with Project Millennial (Part 2)

Byadmin March 7, 2013

KARAN: You referred to patient education earlier, not just in terms of treatment information but also the types of questions to be asking. But what about the former? Our generation is definitely comfortable using technology to look up health information, and we get a ton of information through news, magazines, and the general media. But…

Health Care Cost | Health Policy

You Thought Innovation Was Hard, How about De-Innovation?

Byadmin February 6, 2015

David Asch and I recently published an article in Health Affairs on the challenge of getting healthcare practitioners to stop doing things they are accustomed to doing, even when the evidence that those things are harmful becomes overwhelming. Here is a teaser from that article, and a link to the full piece: As hard as…

Health Care Cost | Health Policy

Why Don't Americans Trust Doctors?

Byadmin December 19, 2014

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Health Care Cost | Health Policy | Uncategorized

Millions To Be Made On…Generic Drugs?

Byadmin March 31, 2015

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Health Care Cost

More Discussion about Discussing Out-Of-Pocket Costs

Byadmin December 23, 2013

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Health Care Cost

Here’s How Tripling Prices Could Save You 40% On Your Medications

Bypeter January 9, 2020January 21, 2020

Medication prices in the US have gone from wild to insane; from expensive to outright unaffordable. But a tripling in prices could save us all a lot of money. Here’s how that would work. It’s a policy known as external reference pricing. The idea is simple. First, the US government would look at how much…