A little bit of medicine, a lot of hope.

After nearly a week of treating patients in Nicaragua, this physician realized that curing isn't everything. Her story was runner-up for the Young Doctor Award in the Medical Economics Doctors' Writing Contest for 2000.     

A little fairness may induce a lot of redistribution in democracy

We use a model of self-centered inequality aversion suggested by Fehr and Schmidt (Quart. J. Econom. 114 (3) (1999) 817) to study voting on redistribution. We theoretically identify two classes of conditions when an empirically plausible amount of fairness preferences induces redistribution through referenda. We test the predictions of the adapted inequality aversion model in a simple redistribution experiment and find that it predicts voting outcomes far better than the standard model of voting assuming rationality and strict self-interest.     

Why the FTC has declared war on doctors

In this article, the Washington editor of MEDICAL ECONOMICS reviews the salient actions taken by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against medical societies, physician directors of Blue Shield organizations, Health Systems Agencies, and Professional Services Review Organizations. When interviewed, top-ranking FTC staff officers responded to specific questions regarding the concerns of the agency. The FTC regards the practice of medicine as an activity in which competition must be protected. Thus, the restriction of advertising, setting of free schedules, limitation on the number of physicians, and exclusion of other health-care providers or organizations is regarded as anti-competitive and merits intervention by the FTC. The staff members acknowledge that the Congress may enact laws to control health care costs which would permit practices that the FTC would oppose in the absence of such legislation.