Archive for March, 2008

Should We Aim For Equality or Autonomy in Healthcare?

Monday, March 31st, 2008

In a previous post we considered the first of three questions we must resolve before we can decide on any plan to fix American healthcare, namely, the question of whether the healthcare system should be universal.
In this post we will take up the second question: Should our healthcare system be designed to enforce equality, […]

Posted in Fixing American Healthcare, Healthcare economics | 1 Comment »

Strawberry Pickers and Primary Care Doctors

Friday, March 28th, 2008

DrRich has never done one-off postings specifically to call attention to enlightening quotes appearing in the medical blogosphere. That’s Kevin’s job; he’s uniquely good at it; and DrRich has no wish to step on turf he does not have the means to defend.
But David E. Williams of the Health Business Blog has captured the the […]

Posted in Primary Care in America | No Comments »

Should the Healthcare System be Universal?

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

As noted in a previous post, there are three basic principles we are going to have to resolve before we can decide on any plan to fix American healthcare. The first of these is: Should the healthcare system be universal? That is, should our reformed healthcare system apply to every individual legally residing in […]

Posted in Fixing American Healthcare, Healthcare economics | 4 Comments »

Can a Voucher System Fix American Healthcare?

Friday, March 21st, 2008

A previous post considered the main problem with current healthcare financing as described by Drs. Fuchs and Emanuel, namely, that individuals are actually paying for their own healthcare today, but are led to believe that the cost is actually “shared” by businesses and government. Since they believe they are getting something for nothing, there […]

Posted in Fixing American Healthcare, Healthcare economics, New business models for healthcare | 3 Comments »

The Now-Award-Winning Fixing American Healthcare

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

DrRich is delighted to announce that his new book, Fixing American Healthcare, has won two awards in the Reader Views Annual Literary Awards competition.
Fixing American Healthcare was awarded best book of 2007 in the category of Current Events - Politics and Society. The book was also named as second place book of the year […]

Posted in Fixing American Healthcare | 2 Comments »

Healthcare Economics, Explained At Last

Monday, March 17th, 2008

Dr. Gaulte of Retired Doc’s Thoughts recently suggested that DrRich might want to weigh in on the Fuchs-Emanuel “Universal Health Care Voucher” proposal for financing American healthcare. Specifically, Dr.Gaulte allowed that he has trouble implementing his normally reliable “follow-the-money” rule to figure out whether this voucher system makes sense, or why neither the Republicans (who […]

Posted in Fixing American Healthcare, Healthcare economics | 2 Comments »

How to Invest in the New Medicare Audits

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

Several bloggers (including DB and Catron) have commented on the recent unleashing of Medicare’s “Recovery Audit Contractors.”
The RACs are a fun tidbit brought to us by the Medicare Prescription Drug Act of 2003. Under the RAC initiative, private contractors will soon be dispatched across the land to perform audits of billing already done by insurers, […]

Posted in Wonkonian Rationing, General Rationing Issues | 1 Comment »

Wonkonians Should Read Their Own Work Product

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

According to Fortune Magazine senior editor Geoff Colvin, if you ask Alan Greenspan what the biggest threat is to the U.S. economy, he answers with one word: Medicare.
Greenspan is relatively sanguine about the sub-prime troubles, the housing crash, the falling dollar, and the trade deficit, all of which are relatively routine economic challenges which will […]

Posted in Wonkonian Rationing, Healthcare economics | 1 Comment »