Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Atul Gawande Strikes Again

This outstanding article about preventive care for high cost patients is outside the New Yorker paywall. It is very much worth reading. Like Ezra Klein, I found one of the drier examples very informative The firm had already raised the employees’ insurance co-payments considerably [skip] employee health costs continued to rise—climbing almost ten per cent […]

CGI, Day 3 – Addressing Cancer in the Developing World: Health Equity and an Overlooked Public Health Crisis

The panel is preceded by this video. Dr. Sanjay Gupta (Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN) leads the panel, featuring: Charles-Patrick Almazor, Director, Public Sector Partnership, Artibonite Department, Partners In Health Lance Armstrong, Founder and Chairman, LIVESTRONG Paul Farmer, Co-Founder, Partners In Health; Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Chief […]

Virginia opposition given standing in federal district court

by Linda BealeExcerpt from Ataxingmatter The post in its entirety can be found at Linda’s Ataxingmatter Health Care Reform: the Virginia opposition given standing in federal district court: The judge states that the “central issue” in the case is Virginia’s interest in upholding it’s “health care freedom act”–a declaration that Viriginia citizens do not have […]

The Maine Chance

Robert Waldmann One strange thing about the health care reform debate is that insurance companies claim to support reform. I have tended to suspect that they are just playing possum. Now I find positive proof that WellPoint is willing to do what it takes to make sure health care reform passes — they sued the […]

Quote of the Day

Health Affairs tells the truth and shames…well… Unlike for-profit firms, a public plan has no incentive to cut corners and prevent providers from giving their patients quality evidence-based care, because its ultimate goal is public health, not private profit. Nor does it have any interest in sideswiping regulations and shortchanging consumers. Free market proponents argue […]

What about me!

by divorced one like Bush So I’ve been thinking: What, since the passage of Medicare has the federal government implemented that actually reduced the risk of living for the US citizen? No, tax cuts do not count. They do not reduce risk. We have reduced risk for business all over the place. NAFTA, CAFTA, exemption […]

Re-tooling the Medicare/medicaid model

rdan I read the Op-Ed in the Boston Globe and asked Doug to write a piece or pieces in a more detailed fashion. There have been allusions to this issue as a cost factor, but no policy consideration here to date. Post by Doug Brown Due to the complexity of organizations today, there is commonly […]

Will catastrophic only health insurance be rescinded in the end?

rdan Taunter explains how the .5% rescission rate figure discussed in the hearings on health insurance premiums and coverage is used to dismiss Congressional concerns as inconsequential and actually is a good business practice that will not change. It is worth going to the post to accurately follow the train of thought. Taunter concludes that […]

FYI on National Health Insurance

Science Friday aired a show on 12/14/07 discussing national health insurance. Guests were: Uwe Reinhardt James Madison Professor of Political Economy,Princeton, New JerseyJ. Fred Ralston, Jr Chair, Health and Public PolicyCommittee American College of Physicians, Fayetteville, Tennessee Donald Berwick President and Chief Executive OfficerInstitue for Healthcare Improvement, Cambridge, Massachusetts Here is a real example (as […]