Smarter health care spending key, according to Harvard study

Economists take on health care spending issues in presentations before the Fed's August meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

NPR: Policymakers Seek Prescription For Ailing Economy
Bernanke says the country's biggest long-term hurdles ... [are] an aging population, schools that leave too many students untrained, and a health care system that's both costly and inefficient. Harvard economist Katherine Baicker, who presented a paper this weekend called "Aspirin, Angioplasty and Proton Beam Therapy," says by focusing on smarter health care, we could save money and feel better, too (Horsley, 8/27).

Bloomberg: U.S. Must Cut Spending On Medical Technology, Harvard Study Says
U.S. policy makers wrestling with the deficit should focus on reducing the number of angioplasties and other medical procedures that don't always deliver clinical benefits, two Harvard University economists said. The overuse of expensive medical interventions is a prime culprit behind rising U.S. health care spending that's encouraged by private health plans and Medicare, Kathleen Baicker and Amitabh Chandra wrote in a paper presented at a Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City symposium today. The two professors spoke at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. "We are neither allocating resources efficiently between health and other uses, nor are we getting as much health as we could for every dollar spent," Baicker and Chandra wrote (Young, 8/26).