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 bioehtics, health care, insurance, markets, medicare, research discussion, wealth, tagged doctor, hospital, government, medicare, bloomberg, patient, health care, Saudi Arabia, medical care, globalization, Aetna, price transparency, Medical Tourism, Thomas Black, insurance companies, Health Net, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Yosef Woodman, Patients Beyond Borders, Mexico, Singapore, Turkey, Brazil, medical malpractice, blood transfusion, Angioplasty on March 26, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Medical Tourism isn’t like regular tourism. It’s a euphemism for traveling to a foreign country for more affordable medical care. And with skyrocketing health care costs in the United States, it’s becoming a reality. Thomas Black of Bloomberg News writes that insurance companies are now offering plans that include procedures in foreign countries, in exchange [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, health care, insurance, markets, medicare, politics, research discussion, tagged government, medicare, health care, economy, income tax, New York Times, transparency, Medicaid, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, medical care, preventative care, free market, Greece, Doctorpricing.com, Robert Pear, federal, Iraq War, defense spending, peace dividend, Soviet Union, Cold War, Congressional Budget Office, black hole on March 9, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Robert Pear’s New York Times article about Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s health care plans has an alarming statistic. Medicare and Medicaid, our two government-funded health programs, cost our country $627 billion last year - or 23% of all federal spending. Many people like to criticize the Iraq War for its cost - proclaiming that [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, health care, insurance, markets, medicare, misinformation/propaganda, politics, psychology, research discussion, wealth, tagged doctor, consumer, government, medicare, cancer, patient, health care, economics, philosophy, chronic disease, treatment, medical care, heart disease, preventative care, bureaucrat, liberal, conservative, Doctorpricing.com, incentives, Ezra Klein, The American Prospect, Peter Suderman, Doublethink, Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish, Healthcare Economist, Jason Shafrin, United States of America, libertarian, heart attack, chemotherapy, trauma, coronary artery bypass, price transparency, life and death, moral agency, Kant, freedom on February 20, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Journalists Ezra Klein and Peter Suderman debate the government’s role in the future of U.S. Health Care (thank you Healthcare Economist). Whose argument carries more weight?
Klein’s main argument is decidedly anti-libertarian, which makes perfect sense because I don’t think he is a Libertarian. Klein’s conclusion is that it will take substantial government resources, research and [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, health care, insurance, medicare, politics, psychology, research discussion, wealth, tagged capitalism, coverage, Democrats, doctors, George Stephanopoulos, government, health care, health insurance, HealthPopuli Blog, Hillary Clinton, insurance, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, John McCain, Kevin Sack, mandate, medical care, medicare, NEJM, New England Journal of Medicine, New York Times, pandering, patients, physicians, political correctness, president, presidential, Republicans, Robert Laszewski, Socialism, tax system, The Health Care Blog, universal coverage on February 16, 2008 | 7 Comments »
John McCain (re: health care in the USA):
“For all the grandiose promises made in this campaign, has any candidate spoken honestly to the American people about the government’s role and failings about individual responsibilities? Has any candidate told the truth about the future of Medicare? Its costs are growing astronomically faster than its financing, and [...]
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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 bioehtics, health care, insurance, markets, medicare, tagged doctor, hospital, insurance, medicare, infection, staph, physician, medical, medicine, Wall Street Journal, WSJ, CIGNA, surgeon, Cerner, incentive, treatment, patients, UnitedHealthcare, Vanessa Fuhrmans, never-events, National Quality Forum, amputation, blood type, WellPoint, Aetna, Humana, mistake, Laissezfairehealthcare, accident, Pitt County Memorial Hospital, pneumonia, methicillin-resistant, Steve Lawler, Verden Group, Verd-e-blog on January 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Vanessa Fuhrmans of the Wall Street Journal reports that insurance companies are probably going to stop paying for medical treatments made necessary by “never-events,” (list from the National Quality Forum) those major screw-ups you pray a hospital never commits. Examples include leaving a sponge in a surgery patient, amputating the wrong limb, transfusing the wrong [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, health care, insurance, markets, medicare, misinformation/propaganda, politics, psychology, wealth, tagged adaptation, bigot, bigotry, blog, conservative, creed, Democrat, doctor, England, Freakonomics, free market, gender, government, health care, hospital, insurance, judgment, liberal, Medicaid, medicare, Michael Moore, race, religion, Republican, Sicko, Socialism, socialized, Stephen Dubner, UK, United Kingdom, Wall Street on January 12, 2008 | 4 Comments »
When we make snap judgments based on race, creed, religion, or gender, we are bigots. When a Wall Street trader makes a snap judgment, he can either make or lose a lot of money. The latter probably more closely resembles the original reason for the adaptation. Long ago in our development, making judgments that [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, health care, insurance, medicare, politics, tagged doctor, insurance, medicare, cancer, blog, health care, money, WCShort, bureaucracy, William Short, property tax, Jackson County, Department of Revenue, municipal, State of Missouri, online payments, bureaucrat, goverment, loan, interest, deadbeat on December 29, 2007 | 2 Comments »
My fellow blogger, WCShort, recently wrote a colorful piece on his experience attempting to renew his driver’s license and paying his personal property tax.
I had a similar experience with the Jackson County Department of Revenue, the municipality responsible for collecting my State of Missouri personal property tax. Because of confusion between internal departments, I was [...]
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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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