American men have a 16 percent lifetime chance of receiving a diagnosis of prostate cancer, but only a 3 percent chance of dying from it. That’s because the majority of prostate cancers grow slowly. In other words, men lucky enough to reach old age are much more likely to die with prostate cancer than to die of it. Even then, the test is hardly more effective than a coin toss…

The results from the American study show that over a period of 7 to 10 years, screening did not reduce the death rate in men 55 and over.

The European study showed a small decline in death rates, but also found that 48 men would need to be treated to save one life. That’s 47 men who, in all likelihood, can no longer function sexually or stay out of the bathroom for long.

Full editorial on the inappropriate use of P.S.A. screening.

As Washington debates health care, this small hospital in a dusty desert town on an Indian reservation, showing its age and struggling to make ends meet, somehow manages to outperform richer, more prestigious institutions when it comes to keeping Caesarean rates down, which saves money and is better for many mothers and infants.

Full story of the hospital run by the Navajo Nation.

Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691…the average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008… These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, USA Today analysis.

This is Robert E. Litan, writing in The Wall Street Journal:

Google was founded by Sergey Brin, a Russian immigrant, and American Larry Page by borrowing funds from their own credit cards. Why on earth would we want to create an entrepreneurs’ visa that couldn’t let in the future Sergey Brin?

He’s criticizing a bill by Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) that would:

Create a new, two-year visa for immigrant entrepreneurs whose firms attract at least $250,000 in financing from American angel investors or venture capital firms…

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In 2008, 28 percent of sales from the pharmaceutical industry’s top 100 products came from biologics; by 2014, that share is expected to rise to 50 percent.

Biologic drugs can be more expensive to manufacture; they are grown inside living cells rather than put together chemically, as conventional drugs are. But this does not fully account for their high prices. Another important factor is that they very rarely face competition from generic copies.

Congress is about to change that.

Source: Rasmussen Reports, March 2010.

These tables were the basis for Steve Entin’s latest NCPA Brief Analysis.

This is from David Henderson’s review of Daniel Callahan’s Taming the Beloved Beast:

In reaching his major conclusion—that people beyond about age 80 should just accept death—he seems unaware of how elastic the concept of “old age” has been across the centuries. But this does not stop him from advocating that the government step in and make it difficult for people beyond a certain age to get life-saving health care, even if they are willing to pay for it or for non-subsidized insurance to cover it.

See also Henderson and Arnold Kling at Econlog.

Here’s what Obama advisor Larry Summers wrote in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics:

Unemployment insurance also extends the time a person stays off the job. [Kim] Clark and I estimated that the existence of unemployment insurance almost doubles the number of unemployment spells lasting more than three months. If unemployment insurance were eliminated, the unemployment rate would drop by more than half a percentage point, which means that the number of unemployed people would fall by about 750,000. This is all the more significant in light of the fact that less than half of the unemployed receive insurance benefits, largely because many have not worked enough to qualify.

HT to David Henderson at Econlog.

Note: The Chilean unemployment system, based on self-insurance, individual control, and better economic incentives, is far superior to ours.

“You are not necessarily helping the consumer if you keep rates artificially low,” Ms. Praeger said. “What’s worse for the consumer: having a premium increase or having to pay the full amount of a medical expense because the company is out of business?”

Full article on Obama’s proposal for federal regulation of health insurance premiums.