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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘doctor’
Medical Tourism
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 [...]
Consumerism Cheapening Health Care? Get Over It…
Posted in employee benefits, health care, insurance, markets, psychology, research discussion, tagged America, Brian Klepper, Case Shiller Home Prices Indices, consumer driven health care, consumerism, doctor, Doctorpricing.com, double entendre, drugs.com, economics, economy, ego, HDHP, health care, healthcar, hospital, hsa, nurse, physician, prosperity, Richmond, S&P, SMA Informatics, The Doctor Weighs In, Warren Brennan, webmd.com on March 23, 2008 | 4 Comments »
People like to scoff at the idea of blending health care with shopping. Uttering the very words “consumer driven health care” sends shivers down the spines of “purists” - your local medical specialist, whose life-saving work necessitates the confidence and ego driving the indignancy of the thought. Does consumerism cheapen health care? Well, yes…if you [...]
I Might Have Been Wrong About Obesity…
Posted in bioehtics, health care, insurance, markets, misinformation/propaganda, psychology, research discussion, tagged doctor, insurance, physician, medical, cigarettes, medicine, blog, health care, obesity, America, American, economy, economist, Freakonomics, Steven Levitt, markets, fat, Stephen Dubner, McKinsey, Eric Finkelstein, The Fattening of America, incentives, innovations, calories, BMI, Body Mass Index, Pharmaceuticals, blood pressure, hypertension, lipid, Amish, Maslow, smokers, second-hand smoke on February 9, 2008 | 10 Comments »
I frequently make a big deal about obesity - how it’s probably one of the primary reasons Americans have comparatively low life expectancies, and how it contributes largely (no-pun intended) to our skyrocketing health care costs. My generalizations are imprecise at best…just plain wrong at worst.
Check out this Q and A with health economist Eric [...]
The Number One Culprit in Modern Medicine: Guesswork
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 [...]
Hospitals Will Have to Pay for Mistakes
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 [...]