by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Recommending Brad Delong When he is not snarking up a storm on his blog or educating Berkeley’s young skulls full of mush Brad does some solid academic work. In concert with Prof. Ann Marciarille (Mrs. Delong if I remember correctly) Delong has posted an interesting piece to […]
by Linda Beale Essential Health Benefits and cost benefit analysis: can we maintain doctors’ incomes and provide decent care for all? So we thought we had finally created a national system of health insurance that would permit near-universal coverage for essential health benefits to every American. But the Obama administration says it is not going […]
By Michael Halasy Super Committee and GME funding SO, about that super committee. Surely you remember, the gang of 12 that was created by the showdown over the debt ceiling this summer. Well, they’re hard at work but among the proposals out there, is one that is causing some grave concerns. As a health workforce […]
Via Ellie Lang, the NYT (no link, unless this works) lists thirteen (13) countries that have a AAA credit rating from S&P: Switzerland Hong Kong Sweden Germany Canada Denmark Britain Netherlands Finland Norway Austria France Australia The thing all thirteen have in common? All provide National Health Care.
I’m not going to do this with graphics (at least for now), but the finger exercise seems intuitive. Assume—against all evidence—that the “once we educated them, 30% said they would stop offering health insurance to their lowest-paid employees” study is accurate. How does that, as John Boehner declares, cost America jobs? From Boehner’s site: At […]
My wife had knee surgery recently.* One of the great things about our then-current health insurer is that they provide complete data—list price, what they negotiated, what they paid, what you owe. Since we’re in the “doughnut hole,” I’m tracking more frequently than I usually would. And the bills—possibly because we were moving to a […]
by Michael Halasy Practicing Emergency Medicine PA, Health Policy Analyst, and Health Services Researcher Medical Tourism, separating facts from fiction One of the greatest myths that I hear on a somewhat regular basis, centers around the belief that the US must have one of the greatest health systems in the world, because everyone comes here […]
Guest Post From Robert Bowman, M.D. No Assumptions for a Change Assumptions are often incorrect and the assumptions are incredibly inaccurate in primary care and in basic health access. When one starts with the assumption of more pay, then it is easy to rationalize more training or more complexity of care – even when there […]
“The practice of medicine was accepted to be a chancy way to make a living, and nobody expected a doctor to get rich, least of all the doctors themselves.” – Lewis Thomas, The Youngest Science, p. 4 (Penguin, 1995 edition, quote via Google Books) Lost in the discussion of Paul Ryan’s “plan” is the group […]
By: Daniel Becker Just a little something that came across my desk. As you read it, think about the concept: War on Drugs. “In the United States, the therapeutic use of opioids has exploded as witnessed by the increased sales of hydrocodone by 280% from 1997 to 2007, while at the same time methadone usage […]