Quick quiz question: two people are diagnosed with melanoma – Sarah Sunburn, an adamant sun-worshipper, and Paula Pale-All-The-Time, a fanatical sun-avoider. Who is more likely to die of the disease? The answer is pale-faced Paula. Surprised? Let me unpack this mystery and explain why sun exposure simultaneously kills people, while making the cancers they are…
“Healthcare.gov 3.0 — Behavioral Economics and Insurance Exchanges” – The New England Journal of Medicine
“Animal Madness” – Worth
“eBay and the Brain: What Psychology Teaches Us about the Economic Downturn” – Scientific American
“Dose Response” – The Sciences
“DOCTOR FILES: When the Unknown Is Not So Bad” – Los Angeles Times
Everyone thinks of “Medicare for All” as a liberal idea, an extremely liberal one embraced by the socialist wing of the Democratic Party. It’s an idea Democrats were hesitant to embrace in the Obama era, for being too far out of mainstream political thought. It was thought of as an idea that was too easy…
Obamacare is still the law of the land, but the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are determined to undermine the law in the hope it will cease to function. One of the strategies is to cut advertising funding for ACA insurance plans. If a recent study is any indication, that strategy might work. One of the…
Physician reimbursement increasingly depends upon measures of healthcare quality. Physicians who fall short on quality measures now face financial penalties. But it might be quality measures, themselves, that are falling short, according to a study conducted by the American College Physicians. The study involved a panel of people with expertise in evidence-based medicine. Panelists were asked…
Obamacare gave employers permission to charge smokers up to 50% more for health insurance, as a way to incentivize healthier behavior. But to make sure smokers had a fair chance to avoid these penalties, the law required employers to provide tobacco cessation programs to anyone facing such a surcharge. Almost half of the companies who charge smokers…