Who Should Decide Who Gets a Transplant?
Watch this segment from HuffPo Live on two children denied transplants because they were not deemed mentally capable enough to benefit. Two angry moms are fighting back. Love to hear your thoughts.
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Why We Need More Twelve-Year-Olds Teaching Health Policy
I come from an ardent Republican family. Suspicion of government, you could say, runs in my genes. No surprise then that the first time my parents and siblings heard about Obama’s individual health insurance mandate, they were against it… (Read more and view comments at The Human Capital Blog)
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What Does Health Insurance Consolidation Mean for You?
Listen to this Marketplace report on consolidation in the world of health insurance. It is an interesting report, and also the first public acknowledgment that I am, gulp, a Business Professor!
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It's Physician Pay, Stupid!
In 2006, health-care expenditures in the U.S. rose 6%, a rate of growth significantly higher than inflation and one that, if sustained, would lead to a doubling in health-care spending in a mere dozen years. Some of that extra spending was a function of more doctors doing more things to more people—an increasing number of…
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How Screwed Up Does Health Care Need to Get Before We'll Fix It?
“We need to be screwed!” Not altogether surprising words to spill out of a college student’s mouth. But this particular student was not talking about sex. She was discussing the U.S. health-care system–more specifically what she thought it would take for our two political parties to come together to find a … (Read the rest…
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What Should I Do, Doc?
“What Should I Do, Doc?” – Archives of Internal Medicine
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Inappropriate Touching in the Doctor's Office
I felt a woman’s uterus without her permission. How this happened, and why I thought I had done the right thing at the time, tells us something important about medical education and shows us why doctor/patient interactions often play out like conversations between earthlings and aliens… (Read the rest and view comments at Critical Decisions)
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Hazards of High Deductibles?
See this nice article on high deductible health insurance, by a reporter I spoke to, if I remember correctly, while walking my dog in one of Chapel Hill’s nicest parks.
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Is Information Good for Medical Decision Making?
Making important decisions in the dark can be stressful. But a recent study suggests that shining a light on decisions can make decision makers even more anxious. The question remains: Is this anxiety a good thing or a bad …. (Read the rest and view comments at Critical Decisions)
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Penalizing Smokers So They Will Quit
Recently my employer, Duke University, announced it would be charging $10 more per month to offer health insurance to smokers (see story here). Duke’s policy has a couple motivations. Smokers get sick you see, and those smoking related illnesses cost Duke money. So it’s only fair to pass some of those expenses… (Read the rest and view…