Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, health care, insurance, law, markets, politics, research discussion, wealth, tagged doctor, hospital, legislation, politics, economics, New York Times, Medicaid, universal health care, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, primary care physician, Boston, health insurance, Katherine Atkinson, medical school, Patricia Sereno, American Academy of Family Physicians on April 10, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Actually, my title is a bit misleading. Not everyone has coverage…many people have not complied with the new law mandating coverage, and simply pay the fines. So the state still has many uninsured people, and now it has a rising shortage of primary care physicians.
Those of us who have taken a basic economics course saw [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, corporate practices, entrepreneurialism, health care, insurance, law, markets, medicare, misinformation/propaganda, politics, psychology, research discussion, wealth, tagged Africa, atomic bomb, ban, bankrupcy, black market, Britain, Canada, capitalism, China, Communism, congress, CT scan, diabetes, doctors, Dubai, England, entreprenuer, excise tax, food pyramid, GDP, health care, Health Maintenance Organization, HMO, HR 676, human rights, immigration, income tax, India, Israel, Japan, John Conyers, malpractice, Marxism, medicare, Mexico, Michael Moore, peso, physicians, primary care, Russia, Sicko, single-payer, Socialism, Stalin, Stalinism, U.S. Treasury, United Kingdom, United States National Health Insurance Act, universal health care, USNHI on April 3, 2008 | 6 Comments »
On January 27, 2008, U.S. Representative John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) introduced a new version of a previously unsuccessful bill before Congress that would turn America’s health care system into a socialized, not-for-profit, singer-payer system. Previous iterations of the bill had few co-sponsors (25 in 2003), and the current version (H.R. 676), has gained a modicum [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, health care, insurance, kidney transplant, law, markets, psychology, research discussion, wealth, tagged Alan Johnson, Avastin, breast cancer, cancer, capitalism, Debbie Hirst, Dialysis, Doctors for Reform, England, ethos, government, Great Britain, health care, healthcare, hearing aid, hemodialysis, justice, kidney transplant, liberal, Liberalism, MRI, N.H.S., National Health Service, New York Times, oncologist, oncology, orthopedic surgeon, pancreatic cancer, Parliament, Paul Charlson, pension, philosophical, philosophy, politics, principles, Sarah Lyall, selling your kidney, Socialism, socialized, Tarceva, taxes, UK, United Kingdom, Yorkshire on March 1, 2008 | 3 Comments »
A reader of mine left an interesting comment on my post about selling your kidney. Here is an excerpt:
“I am waiting for a kidney and have been dialysising for 2 [and a] half years on hemodialysis and 5 years on capd - a gentler type of dialysis… I am…using up resources and cos[t]ing a lot [...]
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Posted in bioehtics, health care, insurance, law, medicare, misinformation/propaganda, politics, psychology, research discussion, tagged doctor, insurance, government, medicare, physician, blog, health care, obesity, John Edwards, statistics, Charlie Munger, science, attorney, Crossover Health Blog, Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated, The Desperate Cure, Bone Marrow Transplantation, breast cancer, hope, greed, waste, John Grisham, The Rainmaker, Francis Ford Coppola, Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, lawyer, ambulance chaser, lawsuit, scientific method, statistical significance on January 26, 2008 | 3 Comments »
The Crossover Health blog has fantastic commentary on Shannon Brownlee’s book “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making us Sicker and Poorer.” I haven’t read the book, but I understand it’s about waste in American Health Care. The blog focuses on one particular chapter entitled “The Desperate Cure,” which chronicles the failure of Bone Marrow [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, corporate practices, employee benefits, entrepreneurialism, insurance, law, tagged doctor, insurance, hsa, NY Times, health care, Socialism, New York Times, employee, welfare, Ninth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, San Francisco, CA, California, appeal, small business, health savings accounts, Healthy San Francisco, burden, Daniel Scherotter, Golden Gate Restaurant Association, GGRA.org, conflict of laws, Supreme Court, dicta, governments on January 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The title of this post is a prediction rather than a description. The New York Times reports that a three judge panel from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the city of San Francisco, CA a temporary reprieve from a lower court ruling that would’ve prevented the city from forcing small business owners [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, corporate practices, employee benefits, health care, insurance, kidney transplant, law, misinformation/propaganda, politics, tagged hospital, insurance, government, politics, blog, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, health care, John Edwards, Socialism, presidential, election, CIGNA, Medicaid, socialized medicine, capitalism, Senator John Edwards, New Hampshire, primaries, doctors, liver transplant, attorney, plaintiff, irony, Nataline Sarkisyan, jury, rationale on January 7, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The Wall Street Journal chronicles John Edward’s attempt to tug at New Hampshire’s heart strings by telling a misleading version of the story of the death of a 17-year old leukemia patient and Cigna Corp., the insurance company that delayed coverage on her liver transplant.
Edwards, a former trial attorney, is the most extreme of capitalists, [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, corporate practices, entrepreneurialism, health care, law, markets, misinformation/propaganda, politics, psychology, tagged Adam Smith, American, American Idiot, Arab, Arabic, Bill Gross, blow, Bush Administration, capitalism, cocaine, Communism, congress, David R. Henderson, Democrats, doctor, Dubai, economist, ego, Enron, false idol, free market, George Bush, globalization, government, Green Day, guilt, health care, hedge fund, Hillary Clinton, Hoover Institute, hosptial, innovation, IRS, jealously, Liar's Poker, Libertarians, Lindsay Lohan, markets, Michael Lewis, New York Times, nurse, NYTimes.com, paternalism, Peter Goodman, PIMCO, politicians, politics, regulation, Republicans, Sarbanes-Oxley, Socialism, Stanford, tax, tongue-in-cheek, trader, Trojan Horse, Vicadin, welfare, William Gross, Worldcom on January 2, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Peter Goodman of the New York Times writes an interesting retrospective of free markets entitled “The Free Market: A False Idol After All?“ The article’s basic conclusion is that unfettered free markets (unhampered by regulation)…systems merely based upon ideology, cannot stand without some basic rules of government. And I don’t disagree. In the short run, [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, entrepreneurialism, health care, law, markets, medicare, politics, research discussion, wealth, tagged doctor, hospital, nurse, consumer, government, medicare, physician, congress, public, medical, competition, patient, innovation, health care, wealth, American, economics, contraception, orthopedic, Harvard, budget, cardiology, family doctor, BBC, Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, Mercedes, Benz, S-Class, sedan, privilege, African, automotive, cruise control, infrared camera, night vision, rural, seatbelt, anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control, ESC, satnav, mainstream, laboratory, safety, marketplace, metaphor, specialty hospital, internist, general practitioner, frontier, status-quo, research, study, prototype, Ashok Roy, Heritage Foundation, moratorium, unfair competition, Regina Herzlinger, MedPAC, HHS, mortality, costs, lobbyist, death sentence on December 26, 2007 | 1 Comment »
There’s a really cool show on BBC America called “Top Gear.” It’s a witty, irreverent, brutally honest car show hosted by three dry-witted Brits: Jeremy Clarkson (blog here), Richard Hammond, and James May. Last season they road tested the new Mercedes S-Class (video clip). The S-Class is the big, expensive standard example [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, health care, insurance, law, markets, medicare, politics, research discussion, wealth, tagged health, doctor, hospital, nurse, government, medicare, physician, medicine, blog, market, health care, Socialism, economist, Freakonomics, GDP, compensation, primary care, specialist, socialized medicine, incentive, medical care, crisis, American Medical Association, AMA, Harvard, budget, post, PCP, primary care physician, interists, internal medicine, developed countries, med school, resident, family medicine, student, intern, RBRVS, William Hsiao, formula, preventative care, RUC on December 22, 2007 | 6 Comments »
A recent Health Care Blog Post explains the looming crisis in primary care. Some background: great health care systems are anchored by primary care physicians (PCPs), the generalist doctor whom your family depends upon for standard medical care. The PCP must have a workable basic knowledge of nearly all medical specialties and be able to [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, health care, insurance, law, medicare, politics, tagged budget, business, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, doctor, expenses, government, health, health blog, hospital, insurance, medicare, medicine, physician, policy, politics, premiums, primary care doctor, provider, public health, revenue, socialized medicine, universal health care, Wall Street Journal, welfare, WSJ on December 18, 2007 | 8 Comments »
As predicted, the “universal” health plan introduced by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is more expensive than the politicians thought it would be. The tab could run $619mm for the state’s fiscal year, $147mm or 20% over-budget - according to this health blog post on the Wall Street Journal’s website.
What’s the answer to this problem? Well, [...]
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