I dare to write that the health financing situation is becoming increasingly muddled. With all three health insurance companies (allegedly) starting to cut their losses, the problem of financing Slovak healthcare has moved up a notch. Of course, it is too early to be scared, but from a systemic point of view, any future financial problems of the health insurance companies would be much more serious than the financial problems of the hospitals.
An exasperated call from a friend of mine during lockdown described the weary situation of kids during COVID-19. My friend’s child, as he told me fumingly, is attending his elementary school classes online. As expected, it didn’t go smoothly.
In non-emergency times, the role of economic freedom, defined as a lack of interference or coercion by others in an individual’s economic decisions, has been scientifically proven to yield economic growth and prosperity for the greatest number of people.
Singapore ranked first in the 2020 edition of the Smart Cities Index, which aims to assess cities in terms of citizens’ needs. Bratislava ranked 76th out of 109 cities with a year-on-year improvement of 8 places.
Wide access to data will allow for a better understanding of the mechanisms of virus transmission and progress in the fight against the epidemic.
To stop the coronavirus, most countries ceased almost all economic and social activities. As a first response to prevent an exponential growth of cases, this was probably justified. However, we will not be able to bear the costs of such a complete shutdown for a very long time.
The Czech government banned manufacturers to sell respirators and masks to anyone but the legal entities established by the state. Public hospitals are NOT legal entities established by the state in the Czech Republic. Ouch.
December 1, 2017, marked the five-year anniversary of the full implementation of plain packaging in Australia. The removal of brands and trademarks from packaging remains a gross violation of intellectual property rights and has failed to achieve its intended goal.
Proper application and Agriculture 4.0 will make it possible to balance the need to economically protect crops, on the one hand, while taking into account the needs of protecting health and the environment, on the other. This can be achieved without banning glyphosate.
In order to help fund the Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, the medical device tax was implemented in the U.S. at the beginning of 2013. It is a 2.3% excise tax on medical equipment such as heart valves, manufactured hip joints, pacemakers, etc. The tax has received bipartisan criticism for its negative effect on the medical devices industry.
