Healthcare USA – Beyond the Politics This week’s report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that the rate of growth in US healthcare spending has tapered off compared to that of other high-spending countries (Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Canada in this case). This is considered a good thing, even though […]
Can Bipartisan Healthcare Solutions Survive the Obamacare Backlash?
Hyper-Partisan Politics Surrounding Obamacare Suggest Not The latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine has an interesting post-Obamacare report from the Bipartisan Policy Center. It’s optimistically entitled “Prescription for Patient-Centered Care and Cost Containment”. It’s optimistic because of the initial favorable responses it’s received from both sides of the political aisle. Its authors […]
Wishful Thinking On Healthcare Reform
Healthcare Reform Won’t Come From Within America’s doctors are being exhorted to assume healthcare reform leadership roles in expediting payment reforms and system transparency. In considering why I find this so unlikely, I remembered a tactless comment I made back in my days as a regional health planner when presenting my case to a state […]
Are America’s Healthcare Patients Too Trusting?
MedSmart Patients Are Skeptics [ez_date] One of the “take-home” lessons of MedSmart Patients is that much of healthcare practice – experts estimate as much as 80%[1] – has no evidence to support it. This helps explain why almost half of U.S. medical care is considered unnecessary, sub-standard and inappropriate.[2] It may also explain why medical […]
Redefining America’s Healthcare Crisis
Is Healthcare REALLY an American Crisis? The word “crisis” is much-abused in our media-saturated world. In America, we’ve got a jobs crisis, a housing crisis, an education crisis, a climate crisis…we’re overdosing on crises such that none of them scare us much any more. We somehow seem to survive all these crises, after all, so […]
Healthcare Reform: Is Access Enough? – Part 3
Healthcare Reform: Be Careful What You Wish For Healthcare reform in America is driven largely by the estimate that 44,000 Americans die every year due to lack of health insurance. Appalling as that number is, it pales in comparison to the carnage – largely concealed and unrecognized by the public – of those dying from […]
Healthcare Reform: Is Access Enough? – Part 2
Healthcare Reform: Overlooking the Obvious We don’t need to look abroad for models for effective healthcare reform. Nor is Massachusetts a valid prototype, as it fails to address the delivery of medical care. Instead, we have a homegrown solution that shines: the Veterans Administration’s health system. It’s a model for how to turn around a […]
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