MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'cost-benefit'. Tue, 04 May 2010 18:53:06 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3494294&cid=t_189435_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXK8hOYawhTw%2F By Jim HarperSince they were announced recently, I’ve been working to make sense of new security procedures that TSA is applying to flights coming into the U.S. “These new measures utilize real-time, threat-based intelligence along with multiple, random layers of security, both seen and unseen, to more effectively mitigate evolving terrorist threats,” says Secretary Napolitano. That reveals essentially nothing of what they are, of course. Indeed, “For security reasons, the specific details of the directives are not public.” But we in the public aren’t so many potted plants. We need to know what they are, both because our freedoms are at stake and because our tax money will be spent on these measures. Let’s start at the beginning, with identity-based scr... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3494294 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:45:06 +0100 3494294 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3182169&cid=t_189435_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FleTUXXseucI%2F By Michael F. CannonEven if Democrat Martha Coakley wins 50 percent of the vote in the race to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s (ahem) term, there are other numbers emanating from Massachusetts that present a problem for President Obama’s health plan. On Wednesday, the Cato Institute will release “The Massachusetts Health Plan: Much Pain, Little Gain,” authored by Cato adjunct scholar Aaron Yelowitz and yours truly. Our study evaluates Massachusetts’ 2006 health law, which bears a “remarkable resemblance” to the president’s plan. We use the same methodology as previous work by the Urban Institute, but ours is the first study to evaluate the effects of the Massachusetts law using Current Population Survey data for 2008 (i.e., from the 2009 March suppl... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3182169 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:12:07 +0100 3182169 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3149031&cid=t_189435_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSYyEpIbHak0%2F By David BoazTwo items in Tuesday’s newspapers remind us of the often unseen costs of regulation and also of the often unseen benefits of market processes. In the Wall Street Journal, Prof. Todd Zywicki examines the likely consequences of a law to limit credit card interest rates and the fees they charge to merchants: Card issuers might also reduce the quantity and quality of credit cards by restricting credit availability and cutting back on product innovation or ancillary card benefits. This is exactly what happened when Australian regulators imposed price controls on interchange fees in 2003: Annual fees increased an average of 22% on standard credit cards and annual fees for rewards cards increased by 47%-77%. Card issuers also reduced the generosity of their reward programs by 2... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3149031 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:39:04 +0100 3149031 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1552083&cid=t_189435_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F06%2F26%2Fthe-situation-of-civil-settlements-abstract%2F John Bronsteen, Christopher Buccafusco, and Jonathan Masur recently posted their fascinating article, “Hedonic Adaptation and the Settlement of Civil Lawsuits” (forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review) on SSRN. Here’s the abstract. * * * This paper examines the burgeoning psychological literature on happiness and hedonic adaptation (a person’s capacity to preserve or recapture her level of happiness by adjusting to changed circumstances), bringing this literature to bear on a previously overlooked aspect of the civil litigation process: the probability of pre-trial settlement. The glacial pace of civil litigation is commonly thought of as a regrettable source of costs to the relevant parties. Even relatively straightforward personal injury lawsuits can last for as lo... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1552083 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:03:47 +0100 1552083 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=980578&cid=t_189435_133_f&fid=35129&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwhitterer-autism.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F10%2Fspoil-child.html A long time ago I was young mother and divorced. I worked full time and farmed my daughter out to the only, and most expensive child care centre in the city. Whilst she slept at night, I burned the midnight oil to gain further qualifications, to brighten our future prospects. With hindsight I should have burned the paper qualifications on the flame, but the young are fortunately short sighted. We would run through a check list in the morning of all the many things that we had to remember. Sometimes an important item failed to achieve ‘list status’ and was over looked. Later in the day when I received a phone call from the school or a note home, I would have to admit my error. It was a harsh lesson for both of us. If my employer had been more understanding, if public transport had been ... Whitterer on Autism blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=980578 Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:56:00 +0100 980578