Term
| How have the number of meatpacking companies changed over the past few decades? |
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Definition
| the top four companies control 80% of the market, only 13 slaughter houses |
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Term
| How have the ways animals are raised changed over the past few decades? |
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Definition
| animals are mass produced, feed low quality food, kept in dark rooms, grown with hormones and antibiotics |
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Term
| How has the way meat looks changed over the past few decades? |
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Definition
| meat is now genetically engineered to produce unnaturally over developed desired cuts i.e. oversized chicken breasts |
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Term
| How has meatpacking companies' relationship with the government changed over the past few decades? |
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Definition
| the FDA regulates much less more, high calorie foods receive subsidies, lobbyists work very hard to keep companies protected against regulation, genetically engineered life can now be patentened |
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Term
| what are the consequences of recent farm bills? |
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Definition
| subsidies for unhealthy foods make them cheaper and more readily available |
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Term
| what were the goals of these farm bills? |
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Definition
| the goals of these bills was to encourage farmers to grow huge quantities of these high calorie commodity crops, make them cheap, manufacture cheaper low quality foods |
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Term
| what is the relationship between the government and the food industry |
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Definition
| the government and the food industry are extremely intermingled and as a result the government is dominated by the industries it should be regulating. CEO's of meat companies sit on the FDA board |
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Term
| what is the role/what powers does the USDA have? |
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Definition
| the USDA is a regulatory agency but in 1998 after implementing a 3-strikes you're out policy for e coli testing, they were taken to court by the meat industry and no longer can shut a plant down under this |
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Term
| what factors affect how much fast food people consume? |
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Definition
| lower income, food deserts, job/marital status |
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Term
| what are the consequences of GMOs technology? |
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Definition
| GMOs are used in our food and change it's nutritional value, usually for the worse |
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Term
| how do GMO patents affect farmers |
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Definition
| if the GMOs get into a farmer's field and start growing, it is violating the law |
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Term
| what is the relationship between life expectancy and income? |
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Definition
| overall, as you make more money you live longer but we're just noticing this trend because we didn't have records before. iceland demonstrated fluxuations in this trend due to winters and bad crops weeding out the weak and increasing life expectancy |
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Term
| what is the debate of life expectancy and income? |
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Definition
| the debate between these two factors is whether to improve health by investing in the economy or directly into health programs |
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Term
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Definition
| generally better education = better health |
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Term
| what is medicine's affect on US health? |
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Definition
| medicine has affected only about five years of the LE, and this is mostly due to decreasing infant mortality and advances in heart disease treatment as well as advances is clean water, better food, sanitary conditions, etc. |
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Term
| is prevention saving money or costing money |
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Definition
| prevention measures do cost money, but the question is how much money do they save that would otherwise be spent on treatment |
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Term
| what is the common bench mark for the effectiveness of a preventive measure? |
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Definition
| if a preventive measure costs less than $100,000 per extension of quality adjusted life years |
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Term
| what is the central question of economics? |
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Definition
| the central question of economics is that it is trying to understand human behavior by attempting to answer the question how do people make decisions in a world of scarcity? the major underlying assumption here is that people are rational beings |
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Term
| what are some preventable causes of death? |
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Definition
| high blood pressure, high BMI, physical inactivity, smoking |
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Term
| what is the trade off of preventing death? |
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Definition
| preventing death by changing habits is a sacrifice of personal freedom and hangs on a trade off between healthy activites and activities that the individual would rather engage in |
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Term
| what is the iron triangle of healthcare |
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Definition
| the iron triangle of healthcare is the struggle of choosing to increase quality and access while decreaing/maintaining cost |
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Term
| what did the affordable care act do? |
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Definition
| obama care aimed to increase access to health care by mandating to carry insurance/employers offer insurancy, expand medicaid, cuts the uninsured almost in half |
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Term
| how much of the nation's GDP goes to health care? |
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Definition
| 50% of the nations GDP goes to healthcare |
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Term
| preventive medical care includes what? |
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Definition
| preventing disease before it occurs, screening and identifying disease early, maintaing health, secondary prevention disease chronic disease |
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Term
| what conditions must hold for the welfare theorem to hold (i.e. effective welfare system in a free market) |
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Definition
1. participants are rational and fully informed
2. there are no externalities, one member's decisions don't affect other members
3. there is no market power: members take prices as given |
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Term
| what are the moral hazards of health insurance? |
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Definition
| either you take worse care of yourself because you're covered or you use more medical care when you're sick because you're uninsured |
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Term
| what is the danger of health insurance and market failure? |
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Definition
| adverse selection: if insurance prices are community rated only the sickest people purchase purchase insurance-- makes care more expensive when needed by the otherwise healthy members |
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Term
| what are the main assumptions and features of a neoclassical economics perspective? |
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Definition
| the neoclassical economics approach relates supply and demand to an individual's rationality and ability to maximize utility. naturally find the best bang for your buck |
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Term
| what is a trade off in economics? |
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Definition
| a trade off is caused by constraints on time and resources. ex- buy unhealthy food because its faster and cheaper |
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Term
| how do economics approach obesity and how does this vary from the public health approach? |
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Definition
| an economic approach assume that people make decisions to maximize their happiness and are willing to accept poor health while a public health approach assumes people want to maximize their health |
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