More Debate on the Future of Primary Care
Recently, I posted in Forbes about our need to rethink primary care, to avoid a physician shortage. The debate continues, as seen in this interesting post from Dan Diamond.
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Recently, I posted in Forbes about our need to rethink primary care, to avoid a physician shortage. The debate continues, as seen in this interesting post from Dan Diamond.
(Click here to view comments)
It is hard to make money treating rare diseases. There simply aren’t enough customers to generate many profits. That’s why the U.S. government passed the Orphan Drug Act in 1983, a law which created a series of incentives to encourage drug companies to develop treatments for rare or “orphan” diseases – conditions affecting less than…
When I lived in Ann Arbor, my children attended a public school where upwards of 15% of kids were not vaccinated for mumps because their left-wing parents didn’t trust the vaccine industry. Meanwhile on the right end of the political spectrum, Tea Party heart throb Michelle Bachman famously accused vaccines of causing… (Read more and…
This picture shows changes in the cost of treating colon cancer, from 1993-2005. It shows unsustainable growth in these expenditures: By unsustainable, however, I do not mean unjustifiable. Patients with colon cancer have much better prognoses in 2005 than 1993, in large part due to advances in chemotherapy. Instead what I mean by unsustainable is…
With health care costs rising, employers (and insurance companies) are increasingly asking consumers (aka “patients”) to have more “skin in the game”—to pay more out of pocket for their medical care. The Kaiser Family Foundation has a nice report on trends in health insurance deductibles. This picture shows the rise in these deductibles. That means:…
The Obamacare law establishes what are known as “health insurance exchanges” to help people compare health insurance plans. It is, when you think about it (heck: even when you DON’T think about it) a pro-market aspect of the law—it gets insurance out there to consumers so they can pick the plan that best suits them. …
This cartoon made the rounds of twitter a few weeks ago, and was first brought to my attention by Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd). But it is such an entertaining cartoon, I thought I would circulate it again: For all its flaws, Obamacare has done more to increase access to health insurance than any government program since…