My article with Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan Kettering continues to generate debate. The two of us argues that copay assistance programs from pharmaceutical companies help specific patients in the short run, but make it easier for drug companies to demand high prices for their products. Here is one take on the topic, spurred on…
Americans spend more per-capita on medical care than just about any other country and, yet, they often have little to show for it. Americans have worse access to care than people in other countries, and are often less likely to receive primary care services, like preventive therapies and screening tests. Determined to address these problems,…
Peter Bach and I have an essay in the Annals of Internal Medicine laying out some of the problems with pharmaceutical funded copay assistance programs. Check it out.
If you only paid attention to popular media, you’d think cancers primarily strike young people. Here’s a picture from a medical journal contrasting media coverage of cancer to actual occurrence of cancer in younger and older people:
If you eat lots of meat, then you are contributing to global warming. Animals like cows require lots of grain, and they emit lots of methane; therefore, demand for hamburger increases CO2 emissions. Here’s a picture from the Washington Post illustrating how much we can reduce emissions by changing our diets:
A recent study of men with early-stage prostate cancer found no difference in 10-year death rates, regardless of whether their doctors actively monitored the cancers for signs of growth or eradicated the men’s cancers with surgery or radiation. What does this study mean for patients? Based on research we have conducted on prostate cancer decision-making,…
Many Americans are buying healthcare insurance that asks them to pay a lot, out-of-pocket, for the care they receive. It looks like that trend, towards higher expenses, is especially common among higher income folks, as shown by this picture courtesy of the Commonwealth Fund:
It is hard for any physician to advance as a medical researcher. Competition for research funding is fierce; the rigors of publishing in prestigious medical journals are gargantuan. And women pursuing such careers face even bigger challenges, with many having to take on disproportionate burdens at home compared to their male colleagues (caring for kids,…
Here’s a picture from @RAdamsDudleyMD, one that, sadly, is consistent with many previous studies. The US doesn’t measure up in giving people access to medical care.
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,…