All I can think of is the public digesting Paul Krugman's argument that we spend more money on health care than countries with socialized medicine, we have the same longevity as those countries, therefore socialized medicine is more cost-effective.
In fact, we spend $2000 more per capita than other countries. Taking David Cutler's value of a life-year as $100,000, the critical value for whether that $2000 is cost-effective is whether it increases our longevity by one week. If you want to try to find that week by controlling for all the other factors that affect longevity (genetics, homicide rates, traffic fatality rates, etc.), go ahead. But I think it's like trying to call balls and strikes from a helicopter.
the relevant link
# posted by Nick L. : 8:35 AM
