Here is another great picture from the people at Vox. It shows the United States in the middle of OECD countries, when it comes to spending on social services, like healthcare, unemployment, and the like. Despite being in the middle, however, the US is better understood as an outlier, on two extremes of this spectrum….
Here is an interesting picture of how people rate the quality of care in their countries. The US is near the top, but so too is the largely socialized British system: One clear message here: We all have another reason not to visit Russia any time soon!
In health policy circles (yes, those exist!), experts often refer to three aims for a modern healthcare system – to offer (1) universal access to (2) high quality medical care at (3) an affordable cost. Access, quality, and cost: a possibly unachievable set of goals, certainly in the U.S., where the quality of our care…
My patient had been feeling unusually irritable lately. Nothing had changed in his home or work life to bring on such a shift in mood. He wasn’t taking any medicines that could cause such symptoms either, being a strappingly healthy young guy. A weightlifter in fact. “Are you taking any kind of steroids?,” I asked…
Interesting picture on the Vox website from Sarah Kliff, showing an increase in the number of health insurance companies planning to compete on the exchanges next year: So much for the rumors that Obamacare will quickly kill the health insurance industry. (Click here to view comments)
A great cartoon from the Kaiser Health News website that pithily captures the “wonders” of the American health insurance system. (Click here to view comments)
I have been writing a bit lately on the need for healthcare providers to talk with their patients about healthcare costs, if for no other reason than to enable patients to determine whether they can afford to pay for the healthcare that their doctors are recommending them to receive. I have been criticized for this position, on…
With all the hype and controversy over Obamacare, once in a while it’s nice to look at the facts. And here are recent numbers – on the percent of Americans who lack health insurance, a figure that has dropped significantly in recent months with the expansion of Medicaid and the opening of the health insurance…
Sometimes people flat out need cameras shoved down into their stomachs. A long history of reflux disease, for example, could prompt a gastroenterologist to perform an “upper endoscopy”—to run a thin tube down the patient’s throat in order to view their esophagus and stomach and look for signs of serious illness. Medicare has correctly decided…
I spoke recently with a reporter from the USA Today, who ended up writing a nice article on bundled payments in healthcare. I promise to return to this topic on future posts. But for now, let me whet your appetite with a bit of her story: WASHINGTON — Health and policy experts are pushing for…