Just ran across an interesting chart that shows the number of guaranteed sick and leave days in different countries (sick days are like you have a cold, leave days are like you have cancer).
This relates to my post about the role of companies in the health of their employees (and the country as a whole). The sick leave entry suggests that the government mandate some number of days. I’ll avoid that question for politics sake, but I do generally think that this speaks to the misaligned incentives in health in this country. As a sick person I’m encouraged to go to work because otherwise I won’t be paid. When I go I am spreading that sickness to all the other folks in the office, ultimately creating a larger loss in productivity than if I had just stayed home for the day (not to mention I’m less likely to get better than having rested).
Yup, misaligned incentives seems to be where it’s at. Excited to speak to David Lee, one of GE’s health economist about some of this stuff.