health policy

65,000 New Teen Smokers Every Month

If you get a chance, check out the "Running the Numbers" exhibit by Chris Jordan. Here's an example of his work depicting 65,000 cigarettes, equal to the number of American teenagers under age...

First, Blame the Patient

Here's a prescription for health care reform in case some of us are not aware of the fete accompli that we have reached in the policy world with the upcoming election - here's a quick summary of...

Imagine A World Without Medicare

Imagine if Medicare were to become insolvent. What would happen? Would the sky fall?Would people stop needing or receiving healthcare?I don’t think so.The implications of this are interesting to...

Eleven Years and Counting

How old will I be in 11 years when Medicare’s Trust Fund goes bankrupt?I’ll be sixty.Five years before I’m eligible for the program.I mean, I’m entitled to healthcare! Just like everybody else. ...

A Call for Equipoise

My head is still reeling after the reports of doctors hacking into the wireless transmissions of an automatic defibrillator.Oh, it’s not so much the fact that it was done. Really, that was...

Equipoise

My head is still reeling after the reports of doctors hacking into the wireless transmissions of an automatic defibrillator.Oh, it’s not so much the fact that it was done. Really, that was...

Tabled

With no love lost between the two Democratic presidential candidates about health care mandates and such, so much for making patient safety the centerpiece of medical liability reform, huh?Seems this...

Lotteries to Ration Healthcare

Seems Oregon is on to something: if it's free it's for me!Officials began drawing names last week for a chance at some rare openings in the state's healthcare plan. Announced in February, the lottery...

The Look of Things to Come?

There's no such thing as a free lunch:Only a year ago, County Board President Todd Stroger was lopping bodies from the county payroll and closing health clinics as a way to heal a gaping budget...

Healthcare Bill: $4.3 Trillion in 2017

Call me a cynic (who me?), but it seems with this news that the upcoming 10.1% pay cut in June for physicians won't be enough:Government spending on health care could nearly double by 2017 to more...