Is Health Insurance Too Cheap?
Researchers at USC recently published a study designed to find out how much people are willing to pay for better drug coverage from their health insurance plan…(Read the rest and view comments at Scientocracy)
Researchers at USC recently published a study designed to find out how much people are willing to pay for better drug coverage from their health insurance plan…(Read the rest and view comments at Scientocracy)
Facing advanced cancer, who among us wouldn’t look to our oncologist for expert advice on whether another round of chemotherapy makes sense? But do you know what your oncologist cares about, and can you be sure her recommendations map onto your own treatment preferences? … (Read the rest and view comments at Critical Decisions)
Usually it costs money to get an MRI. But sometimes, in order to save money, insurance companies pay patients to seek less expensive medical care providers. Here is an excellent news report on the topic from The News & Observer: North Carolina’s largest health insurer is proposing a solution to control runaway health care costs:…
US healthcare spending is maddeningly high. As in: fifty percent higher than what other wealthy countries spend, with no evidence we’re getting any bang for all those additional healthcare bucks. In 2014, the state of Maryland took direct aim at this profitless profligacy, enacting a bold (dare I say European?) approach : it gave hospitals fixed…
Obamacare is a big, messy law with so many moving parts, it is often hard to tell how well it’s working. People debate whether it is killing jobs or creating them; they argue about whether it is lowering medical expenses or raising them. These debates often feel irresolvable because the law, being a national one,…
Two patients lie asleep on operating room tables, each with an inflamed appendix demanding to be relocated to a specimen jar. Two operations take place, each one lasting close to fifty minutes, each one performed by an experienced surgeon at a state-of-the-art U.S. hospital. One operation was priced at $1200 dollars. But the other one…
Sarcopenia: a mysterious disorder that causes people’s muscles to shrink away. 25%, 30%, even greater loss of strength… until the victim is struggling to make it up to the second floor bedroom. Would you undergo a treatment for this disorder if it was safe and effective? And do you think your insurance company should pay…