By Sara Providence
This week, our contributors tweeted quite a bit about the Affordable Care Act, but also about vaccination, the cost of extending life, and the budgetary impact of preventive health policy.
Amitabh Chandra (@AmitabhChandra2) tweeted the piece “The Cost of Living,” a New York Magazine article about the dilemma posed by very expensive cancer drugs that extend life only by a few dozen days. His opinion on the article: “If there is only one article that you read on healthcare this year, make it this one.” (10/22)
Frank Pasquale (@FrankPasquale) tweeted Paul Krugman’s blog post, “Maybe Economics is a Science, but Many Economists are not Scientists.” Krugman raises the question of whether economists are actually using the evidence garnered in their studies to inform policy debates, using healthcare as an example. (10/21)
Adrian Gropper (@agropper), our newest contributor, tweeted his own blog post: “State Surveillance Endangers the Affordable Care Act: A Case Study.” He uses Massachusetts as a lens to discuss the issues caused by state monitoring of individual health information. (10/18)
Art Caplan (@ArthurCaplan) tweeted a BBC report that a judge in the UK ordered two sisters to receive the MMR vaccine. The ruling represents the latest perspective on the benefits of the vaccine versus its risks. (10/17)
Amitabh Chandra (@AmitabhChandra2) tweeted a report by the New England Journal of Medicine on the effect of cigarette taxes on the Federal budget. The analysis, performed by the Congressional Budget Office, highlights the complexity of determining the effects of health policy on the deficit. In Chandra’s opinion, it “exposes [the] sloppiness of prevention arguments.” (10/17)
Richard Epstein (@RichardAEpstein) tweeted his blog post, “The Obamacare Train Wreck,” about his take on how to improve the Affordable Care Act. In the post, he touches on ideas to “fix” the exchanges, the employer mandate, the coverage structure, etc. (10/14)
