A Breakthrough Opportunity for Global Health

stiglitz

Every year, millions of people die from preventable and treatable diseases, especially in poor countries. In many cases, lifesaving medicines can be cheaply mass-produced, but are sold at prices that block access to those who need them. And many die simply because there are no cures or vaccines, because so little of the world’s valuable [...]

America’s Structural Weaknesses Threaten its Future

Hill

The U.S. massively wastes money on defence spending, health care, energy/transportation, and income disequilibrium. The Battle of the Budget Deficit has become centre stage in the United States and will dominate for many months – most likely into the presidential campaign in 2012. The battle in the U.S. mirrors similar ones in Europe, Japan and [...]

Health Reforms Inflict Pain On Cameron’s Conservatives

mcinternan2

A groundswell of professional and public opinion has put the UK Coalition in hot water, giving Labour a real chance to fatally brand the Tories, once again, as the enemies of the National Health Service. Less than a year since the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats formed a government, they are in deep trouble together. [...]

How the Republican Assault on Health Care Could Backfire On Them

robert-reich

When it comes to health care, Republicans should be careful what they wish for. Their upcoming vote to repeal the health-care law will be largely symbolic — they don’t have the votes to override President Obama’s certain veto. The real thing happens later, when they try to strip the Department of Health and Human Services of money needed to [...]

The Health Impact Fund: Enduring Innovation Incentives for Cost-effective Health Gains: by Thomas Pogge

health-fund

Humanity spends over 500 billion euros on medicines each year, some 1¼ percent of world income. Is this money well spent? Data for answering this question are sparse. While new medicines must pass through elaborate clinical trials before they are allowed on the market, there is very little systematic study of their subsequent use and [...]

Grandma, why don’t you like Democrats?

I noted last week that I would post an article on healtcare and the US election. One of the data that struck me most in last week’s CNN election reporting was how massively the elderly turned against Democrats. What was striking was not only that this was the age group in which Democrats lost by [...]

Marie Antoinette for the 21st Century

Hungary’s unfortunate conservative government never got to bask in the glory of its overwhelming victory in the municipal elections on 3rd October because the very next day marked the beginning of what soon emerged as the country’s worst industrial accident/environmental disaster in a long time, maybe ever. I probably don’t have to explain in detail [...]

Development Aid in Five Easy Steps

sachs

Every country, rich and poor, should ensure universal coverage of primary health care, including safe childbirth, nutrition, vaccines, malaria control, and clinical services. Each year, nearly nine million children die of conditions that could be prevented or treated, and nearly 400,000 women die because of complications during pregnancy. Almost all of these deaths are in [...]

Which planet is America on (and which Europe)?

The American political commentator Robert Kagan once claimed that ‘Americans are from Mars, Europeans from Venus’. If so, I have just spent a week in the capital of Mars. And, back on Venus, I have watched from afar the debate, if that is the right word, on the reform of the Martian healthcare system. I [...]

Private or Public? – The Future of Health Care Provision

obama

The current debate about Barack Obama’s health care plan is very interesting, also from a European perspective. It doesn’t only highlight how different people’s attitudes to health care provision are but also that in this area many of the fundamentals are changing. Whilst Paul Krugman is happy if the US makes incremental improvements on the [...]