Part of Obamacare involved expanding Medicaid, the health insurance program for low income folks in the U.S. The law required states to offer Medicaid to people living at 125% of the federal poverty limit or lower. States that refused to do this would lose Federal funding for Medicaid (which splits costs about 50/50 federal vs…
The book Critical Decisions: How You and Your Doctor Can Make the Right Medical Choices Together by Peter A. Ubel, MD effectively makes the case that good medical decisions require empowered patients, clinicians prepared to support them and techniques to help them communicate.[1] Better than any existing literature, this book highlights techniques and behaviors that clinicians…
Gun rights advocates are correct: a well armed principal might have reduced the death toll from the tragic elementary school shootings in Connecticut last week. Gun carrying citizens might also have been able to take down the shooters in Aurora and Virginia Tech. To most people, after all, guns are about self-defense, not about committing crimes….
Imagine picking up a telephone and hearing your doctor tell you there is a “999 out of 1,000 chance that you’ll be dead within a decade.” That’s what Leonard Mlodinow experienced in 1989, when his routine HIV test didn’t turn out the way he expected. Mlodinow tells this story in his 2008 book, The Drunkard’s Walk,…
“How many calories are in my burrito? Improving consumers’ understanding of energy (calorie) range information” – Public Health Nutrition
“Economics Behaving Badly” – The New York Times
“Doctor, First Tell Me What It Costs” – The New York Times
“A Simple Tweak Makes Calorie Labeling More Effective” – The Washington Post
“How to Tell Someone That She Is Dying” – The New Yorker
Somewhere near where you live, a couple will discover this week that they are infertile and that if they want biological children of their own, they are going to need in vitro fertilization (or IVF). According to treatment protocol, the woman will need to take powerful medicines to ramp up her production of fertilizable eggs….