Health Insurance Trends in One Picture
Here is data from the CDC, on the percent of Americans without health insurance. It shows that Obamacare, for all its strengths and weaknesses, is definitely addressing one major problem in the US:
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My New JAMA Article, On Value Promotion in Healthcare
Here is the opening of an article I recently published in JAMA, available now online, in which I raise concerns about misguided congressional efforts to promote the use of high-value healthcare services, without doing anything to reduce the use of low value ones. Health care systems around the world are under pressure to restrain health…
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Republicans Hate Obamacare so Much, They Refuse to Benefit from It?
Here is a chart from the Washington Post, showing the percent of people lacking health insurance over the last few years. For a long time now, a higher proportion of Democrats have been uninsured than Republicans, with low income and minority communities experiencing a disproportionately high uninsurance rate. But since Obamacare has come into effect,…
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Obamacare Going into a Death Spiral?
Folks around the country are signing up for health insurance right now on the Obamacare exchanges, and some are seeing a very confusing set of options, with price hikes, or maybe not price hikes, and with subsidies, or maybe not such generous subsidies. Here is a great take on what’s happening in NC: Obamacare Customers…
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Graphs Made Easy, by Monty Python
I recently blogged about a study showing that the same information, when presented in a graph, is more credible to people. One of my friends pointed out that Monty Python figured this out a few decades ago. “In this graph, this column represents 23% of the population. This column represents 28% of the population, and…
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Why Are Investors Running Away from Medical Devices?
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…
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Debate over New FDA Commissioner
In a previous post, I argued in favor of Rob Califf as FDA Commissioner. Here is an article from the Duke Chronicle, exploring more of this important debate. Dr. Robert Califf, former vice chancellor of clinical and translational research, may soon be taking helm of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but not without resistance from organizations…
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The United States of Short Hospital Stays
We spend more for medical care in the United States than just about anywhere in the world, but it’s not because people in this country get admitted to the hospital and stay for long periods of time. Instead, we have shorter length of stays in American hospitals than in the vast majority of developed countries…
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Here’s the Medical Care People Skip Because of Cost
According to a report from FamiliesUSA, an organization advocating for improved healthcare coverage, these are the medical services people forego when money gets tight:
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Have Reimbursement Rules Taken the Joy Out of Being A Physician?
She came to the urgent care center with a sprained ankle. The primary care provider gave her excellent care, expertly applying evidence-based evaluation guidelines to her situation, and, thereby, avoiding unnecessary x-rays. By all measures, the provider’s care was excellent, but the interaction still ended up reducing his salary. You see, that patient’s only medical…