Healthcare Economist Unbiased Analysis of Today’s Healthcare Issues
- With AI, why do we still have radiologists?by Jason Shafrin on March 26, 2026 at 4:18 am
From Lex Fridman’s interview with Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA: …the first job that computer scientists said, AI researchers said was gonna go away was radiology because computer vision was going to achieve superhuman levels…and it did. Computer vision was superhuman in 2019….maybe a little bit later, 2020. And so it’s been a long time…
- Why do U.S. physicians make so much money?by Jason Shafrin on March 25, 2026 at 12:50 am
Let’s look at some data on mean annual physician income in the U.S. compared to other countries: U.S.: $458,100 Canada: $194,700 Netherlands: $185,700 Sweden: $115,200 Why are U.S. physician incomes so much higher than other developed countries? Is it a good idea to try to drive down physician incomes? An NBER working paper by Buehler…
- The rising cost of mental illnessby Jason Shafrin on March 24, 2026 at 6:32 am
From a Mark et al. (2026) paper published in Health Affairs last week: …from 2000 through 2021, mental health and SUD nominal spending grew from $40.9 billion to $139.6 billion. Mental health and SUD accounted for 4.5 percent of all medical services spending in 2000 and 5.5 percent in 2021. Real per capita mental health and SUD spending grew…
- Reframing schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental syndrome: The scientific and social imperativeby Jason Shafrin on March 18, 2026 at 10:27 pm
That is the title of a paper published today with co-authors Arundati Nagendra (from the Schizophrenia and Psychosis Action Alliance), Raquelle Mesholam-Gately and Matcheri Keshavan (both at the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School). The abstract is here: Background Schizophrenia is traditionally classified as a serious mental illness (SMI), emphasizing chronicity and disability. However,…
- Healthcare Economist named Top 100 Economics blogby Jason Shafrin on March 16, 2026 at 9:42 pm
Healthcare Economist was once again named one of the top economics blogs (#37) by FeedSpot. What other blogs were in the top 100? Check out the full list here. I was also ranked as one of the top economic blogs of 2026 by the Intelligent Economist as well.