To the long list of hard-to-pronounce bacteria and viruses that threaten people’s health can now be added one more threat: sequestration. Except sequestration isn’t a disease — well, unless you’d call Congress’ chronic inability to deal with the national debt in a fair and balanced way a disease.
Reform of the medical malpractice system is frequently mentioned as a way to control U.S. health care costs. A study of health care spending following a cap on damage awards in Texas shows no effect on spending levels or trends.
Everyone should read the personal story by Kevin Zelnio, a marine biologist and blogger at EvoEcoLab, about his son’s recent medical emergency. Having a six-year-old child whose flulike symptoms turn into a struggle to breathe must be scary enough — but this family’s troubles are compounded by not having health insurance. Zelnio is self-employed, and […]
I wrote last month about the role of chronic diseases in healthcare-cost growth, so I was excited to see a new report from the Institute of Medicine called Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action. When I think of chronic illness, diabetes and heart disease are what leap to my mind […]
One thing that drove me nuts during the healthcare reform debate was the scare tactic of claiming that proposed legislation would result in rationing of healthcare. The problem with making such a claim is that healthcare is already rationed in the US. We ration healthcare based on insurance status and ability to pay. And, as […]
The US spends far more per capita on healthcare than any other developed country — $7,538 per person, compared to $3,129 in the UK, $4,079 in Canada, and $5,003 in Norway (the second-biggest spender), according to 2008 totals compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. One contributor to our high healthcare costs is high administrative costs, […]
United States Senator Bernard Sanders, Independent of Vermont, received this year’s Paul Wellstone Award at the Activist Dinner on 7 November in Denver, during the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association. Dr. Anthony Robbins presented the award “for his principled support for a universal comprehensive health care system…” Senator Sanders prepared this video […]
If you feel like you could use an overview of the new healthcare law – the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – head over the the Kaiser Family Foundation’s website and watch their nine-minute animated video. Cokie Roberts narrates, explaining the problems the law’s designed to address and its major provisions. If you want […]
If you haven’t already, go read Katy Butler’s powerful New York Times Magazine piece about her aging father’s years of decline and the hard decisions she and her mother had to make about his care. Butler’s father suffered a stroke at age 79, and she writes of its effect:
President Obama has nominated Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and he sounds like a great guy for the job. Julie Rovner reported for Morning Edition earlier today that Republicans are stalling his nomination, which isn’t out of the ordinary these days. But the part of her story that […]