Archive for August, 2008

Back Next Week - Emptying the Nest

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

DrRich will be preoccupied for the next week or so, packing, driving, unpacking, etc. his youngest child off to year 1 of college, then trying to come to terms with the utter strangeness of how quickly it all goes by.   Before too long, he hopes, he will come to see blogging as an aid in […]

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Taxpayer Support of the Evil Drug Companies

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Demonizing the drug companies is a necessary and indispensable strategy under a healthcare system that covertly rations healthcare. Quite simply, it is necessary because drug companies are in the business of developing expensive new products that doctors and sick people will demand for themselves.
If we can paint the pharmaceutical industry as being sufficiently evil and […]

Posted in Evil Drug Companies | 3 Comments »

The End-Of-Life Movement and Medical Ethics

Monday, August 18th, 2008

Last week DrRich offered some friendly advice to health plans that would like to take advantage of the cost-saving potential of assisted suicide. DrRich was moved to help in this way upon witnessing the initial, typically ham-handed forays which health plans are making into this promising new arena of High Quality and Efficient Healthcare.
Among […]

Posted in General Rationing Issues | 4 Comments »

How to Sell Assisted Suicide

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

In July, the Oregon Health Plan injudiciously sent a letter to lung-cancer patient Barbara Wagner denying coverage for the expensive chemotherapy her doctor had recommended, and offering instead to cover palliative care “including doctor-assisted suicide.”
The firestorm of outrage this letter triggered (to see the outrage for yourself, simply Google the search terms “Barbara Wagner” and […]

Posted in General Rationing Issues, New business models for healthcare | 3 Comments »

More Guidelines - Fighting For the Children

Monday, August 4th, 2008

A few months ago, DrRich addressed certain disadvantages that will arise from a policy of forcing physicians to practice medicine by guidelines. Essentially, once we decide to measure physician quality and determine physician pay according to how well they “perform” in following handed-down clinical guidelines, we will open a Pandora’s Box of dysfunctional and […]

Posted in Guidelines, Abuse of | 5 Comments »