Category Archives: Health

What does the Budget mean for the health sector in the long term?

Kaitiaki Nursing New Zealand May 25, 2022 It was surprising that Finance Minister Grant Robertson, in a pre-Budget speech, said that he thought the current health system was “incredibly inefficient”. Of course there are some inefficiencies in health-care delivery, just as there are in private enterprise: mistakes happen, some treatments could have been managed better…
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Posts on Health Economics on Pundit

The following are various columns on my Pundit website which involve health economics.  What is the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder? (7 November 2014) The Cost of Demanding More Health Care (10 November, 2014) Prolongation of Life and the Quality of Life (28 November, 2014) Thrive: The Power of Psychological Therapy (November 2, 2015) Are we spending enough…
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BEING A HEALTH ECONOMIST

Wellington School of Medicine Summer School  22 February, 2019. But, first, you may well ask, why should anyone – especially a health practitioner – care about health economics? When I was teaching health economics to sixth-year medical students, I wrote on the board so that it was there during the entire session: EITHER HEALTH PROFESSIONALS…
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PROLONGATION OF LIFE AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE.

How economists think about valuing life when allocating resources for healthcare purposes. Pundit: 28 November, 2014 Keywords: Health; A couple of comments to an earlier column asked questions about the quality of life versus the prolongation of life. It might be useful to set out an economic perspective on the broad issue, while acknowledging the…
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Democratic Governance and Health: Hospitals, Politics and Health Policy in New Zealand.

Miriam J Laugesen and Robin Gauld; Otago University Press, $40.00. ISBN 978 1 877578 27 4. (Review)   New Zealand Books: 5 December, 2013.   Keywords: Health;   I have long puzzled over the point of local democracy in the highly centralised state of New Zealand. If you dont like what your local representatives decide…
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Long Term Prospects for Health Spending

Wellington School of Medicine Seminar Series: 22 November, 2013. [1] Keywords: Governance; Health;   The Public Finance Act requires the Treasury to produce a statement on the Crown’s Long Term Fiscal Position every four years. It involves projecting 40 and more years out based on current policy assumptions with some alternative policy assumptions to assist…
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Dealing with No Ordinary Commodity: Alcohol

Global Alcohol Policy Conference: Thailand, 14-16 February as Honorary Research Fellow at SHORE, Massey University. Keywords: Health; Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy; The theme of this presentation is that alcohol is no ordinary commodity; economic policy has to think about it differently. The alcoholic beverages industry, of course, produces jobs and profits for investors, just like any…
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Gambling Economics (Index)

Keywords:  Health; Time and Money Spent Gambling and the Relationship with Quality-of-life Measures: A National Study of New Zealanders (July 2010) Journal of Gambling Issues http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1336 Measuring the Impact of Gambling (February 2009)  Paper to Wellington Statistical Group http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=938 Assessment of the Social Impacts of Gambling in New Zealand (January 2009) Report to the Mnistry…
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