Government-Run Healthcare “Despite” Obama?

In his campaign, President-elect Obama did not promise or even advocate a universal healthcare system controlled by the government. Indeed, he referred to government-run healthcare as an “extreme” option that ought to be avoided. Instead, he advocated a system in which people who liked their current health insurance would be permitted to keep it, while […]

Ethicist-Assisted Suicide

In a previous post, DrRich attempted to satirize the lame attempts of certain healthcare payers to “inform” certain of their covered lives that, among all the wonderful options available to them under their truly comprehensive health plans, the medical service of physician-assisted suicide would be compassionately offered and cheerfully paid for. (Note to […]

Is Treating Cancer Worth It?

Yesterday, Jacob Goldstein of the Wall Street Journal Health Blog pointed out the financial dilemma that has been created by evidence that a new cancer drug, Nexavar, is effective in treating liver cancer.
Most liver cancers are particularly impervious to chemotherapy, and until Nexavar came along no chemotherapy had ever been shown to significantly prolong survival. […]

How Covert Rationing Precludes Efficiency

(Don’t forget to check out the Independence Day version of Medical Grand Rounds.)
Depending on which news source you read, physicians either are or are not about to get hit with a 10.6% pay cut from Medicare. (The actual outcome of the pay cut kerfuffle, some say, will depend on how many Republican Senators are buttonholed […]

Hey PCPs - Here They Come!

The June 16 issue of AMANews reports that the National Board of Medical Examiners will begin offering a certification examination this fall for graduates of “doctor of nursing practice” programs. Revealingly, the test will be based on Step 3 of the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam.
Doctor-nurses will soon be Board Certified, just like, uh, doctor-doctors.
The […]

Hope for the Medical Home?

Last summer DrRich wrote a post that was pretty hard on the Medical Home, and since that time he has seen no good reason to reconsider his opinion. Rather (as usual after officially pontificating on some topic), DrRich has remained smugly satisfied that he nailed it.
But now something has happened to make DrRich wonder whether […]

Why Big Health Insurance Supports the Democrats

As difficult as it undoubtedly will be for most readers to believe, DrRich still hears from skeptics who ridicule his theory that a Democratic victory this fall will be the best thing that could happen to the health insurance industry. For example, consider this from Anonymous in Montana:
Democrats hate ALL corporations and want to eliminate […]

Attention Warren Buffet - Health Insurers Capitulate!

An article in the May 19 issue of American Medical News reports that America’s largest for-profit health plans will continue to rapidly increase their insurance premiums, even though doing so will continue to lose them subscribers.
In a conference call, WellPoint President and CEO Angela Braly told analysts, “We will not sacrifice profitability for membership.” Similarly, […]

Debating Malpractice Reform

And now, for the main event.
DB has challenged DrRich to defend the “unusual” position on medical malpractice reform he staked out in this space a little over a week ago.
In issuing this challenge, DB made two major points. First, DB notes that the present malpractice environment is universally counteproductive. To elaborate: There can be no […]

Proof That Warren Buffet Reads This Blog

Yesterday, Jacob Goldstein of the Wall Street Journal Health Blog reported that Warren Buffet greatly increased his stake in big health insurers during the first quarter of 2008. Specifically, he added 300,000 shares of WellPoint and 400,000 shares of UnitedHealth to the holdings of Berkshire Hathaway. Notably, the stock prices of both of these insurers […]

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