Despite passionate warnings that the Affordable Care Act would demolish the American economy, things haven’t exactly turned out that way. Here is evidence Dan Diamond circulated a while back. Dan is someone I suggest you follow on Twitter if you want more pictures like these:
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Obamacare is a large, unwieldy law. Despite its complexity, most people are familiar with its most important elements. They know it created a marketplace where people can shop for healthcare insurance; many are even aware that the cost of that insurance is subsidized for people with lower incomes. Others realize…
A JAMA study shows that even though Americans are eating more nuts and whole grains than they used to (see previous post), they aren’t coming CLOSE to meeting dietary requirements: Changing what people eat takes a long time!
In a recent post, I wrote about ethnic variation in the likelihood of going without health insurance. There’s also quite a bit of geographic variation in uninsurance, based on 2008 data – before the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Here is a picture showing the percentage of people in the continental United States who…
Shutterstock How excited would you be about a medication that lowered your risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, or stroke by 1.5%? Excited enough to spend a few thousand dollars a year on the drug? I expect not. What if, instead, the drug reduced those same terrible outcomes by 20%? That’s probably enough benefit to…
Sabin Russell wrote a great piece in Health Affairs recently, on the drought in investment to develop new medical devices. Read it if you have access. If you don’t, here are some of her main points. 1. Venture capital for device manufacturers has been drying up for a while: “‘For five years, this industry has…
“Sleepless in the hospital: Our own default” – ACP Hospitalist