Did you ever wonder why there is no WalMart equivalent in health care? I have. While the current emphasis in the health care reform effort has been on expanded coverage, it is health care costs which need to be addressed in the long run before only the most well to do [...]
Archive for the ‘Health Care’ Category
WalMart and Health Care
Posted in Commerce, Community, Health Care, Public, Steve S., tagged health care costs, signaling on November 7, 2009 | 1 Comment »
thinking more unthinkable thoughts
Posted in Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Janice on November 3, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Of course it’s true that preventing disease is less painful and less costly than treating disease. Or is it?
Take the recent New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/health/21cancer.html) addressing mammogram and prostate cancer screening. Apparently over the last 20+ years of screening with mammograms, we have been able to discover many more breast cancers that are small, [...]
Link Farm, Mostly Related to Bipolar Disorder
Posted in Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Lynn Gazis-Sax, tagged bipolar disorder on November 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
X-Ray Tech Schools has an article about 10 common myths about bipolar disorder. These include ones that are more likely to be held by the general public (e.g. mania is always happy) and ones that are more likely to be held by people with the illness (it’s OK to stop taking my meds if [...]
the dark belly of the beast
Posted in Health Care, Janice, Politics on October 31, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I have been cogitating and head scratching over the question of skewed costs in the delivery of medical care. I have been wondering how Cat scans and MRI scans and colonoscopies and surgical procedures have gotten so amazingly expensive, when the technology hasn’t really changed that much and why all new procedures, which are often [...]
Public Option with Opt Outs
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Nation, Politics, Steve S., tagged Opt outs on October 28, 2009 | 2 Comments »
My priorities for health care reform were costs, portability, opt out options for individual states and universal coverage, in that order. I knew it was unlikely that any of those other than broadened coverage was very likely. There is a big group of people who think that we should insure everyone [...]
Oh my valve, it’s Alzheimer’s! Or, Sig’s Infernal Tour, Canto I
Posted in Family, Health Care, Self, Sigaliris, tagged all about me, alzheimer's, chest pain, gall bladder on October 28, 2009 | 6 Comments »
When your family is behaving badly, if you clutch your chest and cry “Oh, my heart! You people are killing me!” I imagine it might have a dramatic effect. Unfortunately, clutching your chest and exclaiming “Oh, my gall bladder!” doesn’t have quite the same impact.
Perhaps the best way to explain my absence (again) and what [...]
kidney dialysis in the very old
Posted in Culture, Health Care, Janice on October 27, 2009 | 10 Comments »
As people age, their kidney function gradually goes down, usually keeping pace with overall needs. In people with longstanding diabetes or high blood pressure, though, sometimes the kidneys fail before the rest of the body does. In this situation, various toxins build up in the blood and such a person gradually becomes weaker and eventually [...]
The Taj Mahal of Medicine
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged Health care spending, lavish facilities on October 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
As I noted in an earlier post, I have been reading more on international health care, starting with T.R. Reid’s The Healing Of America. One of the things which has struck me in my readings has been the emphasis on keeping down costs in the rest of the world. Words [...]
Health Insurance Company Profits
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged not-for-profit, health insurance, profits, denial of care on October 23, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Suppose, arguendo, that physicians are engaged in best practice medicine. Assume that hospitals and other care providers are doing the same. What then would insurance company profits mean? Profits are supposed to act as a signal for investors. What would that tell us? Would it mean, since the care provided would essentially [...]
International Medicine
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., World, tagged Comparing care, Health costs on October 21, 2009 | 5 Comments »
I have finally got around to reading T.R. Reid’s The Healing Of America. It is well written and readable as it describes other health care systems around the world and tries to apply it to the problems we face in our system. To be accurate, Reid points out that we do [...]
unthinkable thoughts, hypothetically
Posted in Health Care, Janice on October 20, 2009 | 10 Comments »
Last night I participated as a member of a panel speaking to medical students about issues relating to health care reform. Next to me was a respectable Blue Cross executive from the state capital, next to him a health care economist from the university and then two of my doctor colleagues. Our first starter upper [...]
Hawaii, insurance, and the free market
Posted in Culture, Health Care, Janice on October 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Hooray for Hawaii! Apparently they have managed to get employers to cover just about everyone with adequate health insurance and their health insurance costs and other markers of health care efficiency are marvelous. Could it be the sea air?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/health/policy/17hawaii.html?em
So I am brought back to the dilemma that keeps popping up in the health care debate. [...]
thank you Pfizer
Posted in Health Care, Janice on October 15, 2009 | 3 Comments »
That was meant to be sarcastic, actually.
Two days ago I got a notice that I had received a certified letter, which I could sign for at the post office. I had not been expecting a certified letter, but I thought maybe it might have been a mistake, and I was actually supposed to pick up [...]
Health Care Co-ops Work…
Posted in E. L. Beck, Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Nation, Politics, tagged healthcare co-ops, healthcare reform on October 15, 2009 | 3 Comments »
…or so states Steven Hill in a recent Salon Op-ed piece. In it, Hill claims,
The good news for both liberals and conservatives is that nonprofit healthcare cooperatives could substantially impact market dynamics, without increasing the size of government.
Of course, Hill adds an important measure to ensure the success of the co-ops:
But while having more nonprofit [...]
Health reform bill passes senate finance committee
Posted in Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Janice on October 13, 2009 | 4 Comments »
A bill has passed the senate finance committee, with “bipartisan support”, which means one Republican voted for it. The bill is only a tiny part of a health care reform package that will eventually by voted on in the house and the senate.
This tiny piece provides for more affordable universal health insurance, which is [...]
The 70% Solution
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged Health Care, tax increase, taxes on October 13, 2009 | 2 Comments »
This article by James Capretta has been getting a lot of play amongst blogs. Key quotes….
As incomes rise, however, the Baucus bill cuts the value of the entitlement. A family with an income at twice the poverty line, or $48,000 in 2016, would get $9,072 in federal assistance for coverage — [...]
Private Insurance Spending
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S. on October 13, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I somehow missed a very helpful piece on insurance company spending by Uwe Reinhardt. Key quotes…..
In March 2008, the Council of Affordable Health Insurance took aim at state regulations that would require companies selling health insurance in the non-group market to spend at least 70 percent of collected premiums on [...]
Can public and private options coexist?
Posted in Culture, Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Pat S., Private, Public on October 13, 2009 | 3 Comments »
In a recent discussion of health care reform, the point was made that public and private options already coexist successfully in our society. One example given was higher education, a comparison I don’t see as valid. The main difference I see between health care and higher education is that the higher education products offered can [...]
Health care–right or privilege?
Posted in Health Care, Janice on October 9, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Does every American citizen have a right to health care? How about “affordable health care?”
It’s tricky, this question of rights. I would like everyone to have enough food, but everyone doesn’t have a right to enough food. Or enough sleep. Or love…
Soon after 9/11, Mayor Giuliani of New York City said that every American has [...]
Of Two Minds
Posted in Anahata56, Ethics, Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Politics on October 8, 2009 | 7 Comments »
It’s been difficult to avoid, unless you live under a rock somewhere, the ongoing debate regarding health care reform in this country. And while I thought that it might be a mistake, I watched Olbermann’s hour-long “Special Comment” last night, just to hear what he had to say. And I have to say that, while [...]
Ivory Power
Posted in Community, Culture, Education, Ethics, Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Lifestyle, Media, Mind, Nation, Nature, Politics, Science, Scott Lahti, Technology, World, tagged Michael Ostrolenk, Miller-McCune, transpartisanship, Utne.com on October 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Miller-McCune, a magazine launched in 2008, strives to translate recent academic research into readable articles offering innovative and nonpartisan approaches to challenging issues of the day. If you’ve already discovered the joys of The Wilson Quarterly, you’ll find much here to your taste:
The online magazine Miller-McCune.com harnesses current academic research with real-time reporting to address [...]
Health Insurance Exchanges
Posted in Commerce, Community, Health Care, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S. on October 7, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Suppose we had a health care reform proposal that called for opening up markets to let competition help bring down costs? No chance we could get such a plan because the socialists in charge would never consider it? It turns out it is a part of every plan currently before Congress. It is there in [...]
CHRIST STOPPED AT E. COLI
Posted in Commerce, Ethics, Health Care, Law, Lifestyle, Nation, Nature, Science, Scott Lahti, tagged Accidents and Safety, E Coli (Bacteria), food, Food Contamination and Poisoning, meat on October 6, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Knight Science Journalism Tracker, MIT
E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection
By MICHAEL MOSS
Stephanie Smith, 22, was left paralyzed in 2007 after eating a burger tainted by E. coli. Tracing her burger shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble.
This 5,000-word front-page article from Sunday became as of last night the paper’s most e-mailed [...]
Health Care Bleg: Is Demand Infinite?
Posted in Commerce, Community, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged Health care demand, markets, reform, Supply on October 5, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I read more economics blogs than I should. I read a fair amount on health care reform. On blogs covering these topics I often see the assertion made that health care demand is essentially infinite. Is that true? After all, we only have so many gall bladders and hearts. Most of [...]
Patriotic Impulses
Posted in Community, Culture, Health Care, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S. on October 4, 2009 | 9 Comments »
Recent conversations about wanting to defend Americans and keep Americans safe made me think about a case I had when on call recently. A two year old with a fairly large abscess on his leg needed to come to the OR for an incision and drainage procedure. It was ugly and painful, [...]
