Posted by Todd Zywicki:
Medical Bankruptcies and Death by Repeal of Rent Control:
Gail Heriot has uncovered [1]a previous study by some of the authors
of the [2]much-criticized study claiming that 50% of bankruptcies are
caused by medical problems. Gail observes:
I learned today that this was not the first time lead author David
Himmelstein and co-author Steffie Woolhandler, both Harvard
University associate clinical professors of medicine, weighed in
with an unusual medical perspective on a hotly contested political
issue. In 1996, when Massachusetts was considering abolishing rent
control, Himmelstein and Woolhandler protested with the argument
that (as Woolhandler put it), "If rent control vanishes, dozens
will die." Noting that stress and social isolation can and
sometimes do result in heart attack and death, she stated,
"One-third of our heart attack patients at Cambridge Hospital live
in rent-controlled apartments. By allowing landlords to force them
out, the governor and state Legislature are implementing the death
penalty--a social policy sure to kill."
Only heart attacks by rent-subsidized tenants were considered in
this curious analysis. One could, of course, spin out similar tales
of heart attacks by landlords who are unable to make ends meet
because they can't charge fair market rents or of would-be tenants
falling ill when they can't find an apartment at all, because
nobody is willing to build apartments buildings that will only be
rent controlled when completed. But evidently the good doctors were
not inclined to go that far.
She has some other good reporting from that time.
References
1.
http://therightcoast.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_therightcoast_archive.html#111232391105161476
2. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_02_13-2005_02_19.shtml#1108558247
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