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, 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 bioehtics, health care, insurance, law, medicare, misinformation/propaganda, politics, research discussion, tagged health, doctor, government, medicare, congress, health care, Al Gore, obesity, American, diabetes, FDA, science, USDA, Men's Health, MSNBC, Nina Teicholz, fat, carbs, diet, nutrition, insulin, consensus, global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, Richard Lindzen, myth, environment, saturated, heart disease, American Medical Association, AMA, diet-heart hypothesis, evidence, agriculture, farmer, food pyramid, starch, potato, Walter Willett, Harvard, Eat, misinformation, lobbyists, Dissociative Identity Disorder, National Potato Council, sellout on December 13, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Two posts ago, I attacked Medicare. In my last post, I pointed out how budget cuts have all but destroyed the effectiveness of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. In this post, I’m going to talk about the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in another chapter about what happens when citizens entrust their health [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, health care, insurance, law, markets, medicare, politics, research discussion, tagged doctor, hospital, government, medicare, congress, tax, politics, NY Times, health care, inflation, New York Times, drug, reimbursement, medical care, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, crisis, science, public health, administrator, patients, sick, ill, levy, political, E. coli, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, University of Pennsylvania, Garret A. FitzGerald on December 12, 2007 | No Comments »
In my last post I took a jab at Medicare for its embarrassingly compromised medical reimbursement policies. Today’s victim is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A NY Times article reports that an investigation of the FDA by its own “F.D.A. Science Board” finds it in “a crisis.”
More specifically: it’s desperately short of [...]
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Posted in Communism/Socialism, bioehtics, health care, insurance, law, medicare, politics, tagged Bexxar, Biogen, bureaucracy, cancer, capitalism, congress, doctor, drug, GlaxoSmithKline, government, health care, hospital, income tax, insurance, medicare, medicine, New York Times, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, radioimmunotherapies, reimbursement, Socialism, The Fair Tax, treatment, Zevalin on December 10, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Just about anyone who doesn’t work directly for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and has experience in health care, could not argue that Medicare’s reimbursement formularies adequately reimburse hospitals and doctors - AND keep a straight face. Medicare reimbursement, the bane of many hospitals’ existence, began, like many government programs, with a [...]
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Posted in bioehtics, health care, kidney transplant, politics, tagged Al Gore, American Journal of Transplantation, Arthur Matas, Canada, congress, Dialysis, doctor, donor, Francis Delmonico, H. Barry Jacobs, health, health care, hospital, insurance, kidney, market, medication, medicine, National Kidney Foundation, obese, obesity, Pakistan, Philippines, recipient, renal, transplant, University of Chicago, University of Minnesota, Wall Street Journal, WSJ on November 13, 2007 | 22 Comments »
A Wall Street Journal article today discusses the crusade of Dr. Arthur Matas, a Canadian-born transplant surgeon who is arguing that people should be able to sell a kidney to someone who needs it, in a government-regulated market. The ethical implications of commoditising human organs are very complex, and there are arguments on both sides. [...]
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Posted in health care, insurance, politics, tagged bush, children, cigarettes, congress, government, health, illegal, immigrant, insurance, medical, phillip morris, politic, president, public, reynolds, Senate, tax, tobacco, veto on November 8, 2007 | 2 Comments »
The U.S. Senate voted 64-to-30, approving the new child health bill, a week after Congress approved it. This proposed modification to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) would insure an additional $4mm uninsured, low-income children, in addition to the $6mm with coverage under the current 10-year old program. Both houses expect a Presidential Veto, [...]
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