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Would This Picture Help You Shop for a Doctor?
Attention all you design and #nudge fans. Here is a graphic from ProPublica that attempts to help people choose a physician. Do you think it works? What would you do to improve it?
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What Gives Republicans Faith in Government?
President Ronald Reagan was famous for espousing anti-government views. To this day, he is lionized by Republicans, who frequently quote his “less is more” attitudes towards government. Which makes it kind of ironic that when he was in office, Republican faith in government rose significantly. In fact, when you ask people whether they trust the…
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Look What Obamacare Has Done Now
The percent of Americans without health insurance has dropped precipitously in the last few years, thanks in large part to the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. This is especially true in those states that, in accordance with the law, expanded Medicaid eligibility. Here is a picture of some recent data: This is really good news,…
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Has Mammography Created an Epidemic of Pseudo-Survivorship?
Karen Vogt’s breast cancer journey began like many others, with her breasts painfully squeezed into a mammography machine. At age 52, it was far from her first mammogram, but this scan would be the most consequential by far. It revealed microcalcifications, little areas of breast tissue speckled with deposits of calcium that her radiologist worried…
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Medicare, Schmedicare
For more than half a century now, the United States has stood out among its peers in the developed world for having the largest percent of its citizens living without health insurance. But once you turn 65-years-old in America, the government has you covered. Right? Maybe not so much. Because even after people enroll in,…
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Are You Overweight If Your Mom Thinks You Look Fine?
None of us view our children objectively. To a parent, Junior is always smarter, more talented and more attractive than objective evidence would indicate. But look at just how skewed parents’ views of their children are, when it comes to deciding whether their children are overweight. Not until a child gets near the top three…
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Free: Boxed Set!
Back in June, I published a series of essays about efforts to fly people around the country to give them better access to life-saving organ transplants. For your convenience, I have pulled the three essays together into one PDF. As a teaser, I will remind you of the first few paragraphs of the essay. But…
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Insured But Not Covered
Under the Affordable Care Act, the percent of Americans who lack any health insurance has declined significantly. Put another way – more Americans have health insurance than ever. But having insurance coverage is different than being well covered by insurance. Sometimes a person can enroll in a health insurance plan, and still face the kind of out-of-pocket…
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How Much Sugar Is in Your Beverage?
Here’s a display from an elementary school science fair, cleverly showing how much sugar various beverages contain:
