Photo Credit: LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images Growing up Republican, I have long believed in personal responsibility. In junior high school, when I observed close relatives who struggled with obesity, I vowed to never let myself get out of shape. (“Junior high” is what we called middle school back in the day.) When hip surgery gone wrong…
Obamacare dramatically reduced the number of people in United States who lack health insurance. Reduced as in: brought the proportion down to historical lows. Yet very few Americans knew this about the law, which is part of the reason why so many people didn’t like Obamacare. Here’s evidence to back up that connection, from the…
Here’s a picture from the Kaiser Family Foundation from late last year, showing what people want done to improve the US healthcare system: Plenty of work to do!
Shutterstock A baby is born. The delivery was rocky, with the infant’s heart rate showing occasional signs of distress. Later, the parents learn that their child has cerebral palsy, and may never walk normally. Was the obstetrician to blame and, if so, should the parents sue? American medical care is burdened by a flawed and…
We have great medications to treat HIV infections today, but the best medicine is to not need medicine – to not get infected in the first place. But according to an article in JAMA, HIV transmission is rising among gay and bisexual men, compared to the rest of the population: …
Shutterstock It has become trendy in health policy circles to believe that behavioral economic interventions are the key to health system improvement. After all, traditional economic interventions like pay per performance have generated underwhelming results, with little or no change in physician behavior. Why not try a non-financial, psychological intervention—like performance feedback! Well, a study…
I was recently quoted in an article about opioid addiction in what looks like a far-right website. Not surprisingly, they took my quote out of context. They quote me, quoting some other people I disagree with, and then use that as evidence for the thing I quote. Here’s an excerpt of the article in case…
In a clever study, secret shoppers called primary care offices in an attempt to make a new patient appointment. People with Obamacare insurance, or “marketplace plans” in the below figure, had a hard time finding appointments. But so did people with traditional insurance. But there’s a bigger takeaway, one slightly obscured by the misleading y-axis,…
Shutterstock Legalizing medical marijuana is controversial. Physicians have not always prescribed controlled substances wisely, as a look at our narcotic epidemic confirms. But marijuana is much safer than narcotics and, according to a recent study, might even save us money, by reducing people’s need for other, often more expensive medications. Most notably, marijuana can be…
Shutterstock Generic cholesterol pills are probably better for most patients than brand-name medications because the lower cost of generics increases the chance the patients will take the pills every day. Yet some physicians primarily prescribe expensive brand-name drugs like Lipitor and Crestor. According to a recent study of physicians in Massachusetts, about a quarter of…