Barking Up The Wrong Tree: Affordability, Not Cost Growth, Is The Policy Challenge
US health cost growth has reached a fifty year low. What does this mean for health policy? The key problem: nearly half the country cannot afford to use the health system without massive public subsidy. Why affordability, not cost growth, is the major health policy challenge.
MedPAC’s SGR Solution: Bad Medicine For A Chronic Problem
In a failed Congressional experiment with “global spending caps” on physician services, US physicians ended up owing Congress and the Medicare program over $300 billion. The Congressional advisory panel MedPac issues a flawed proposal for cleaning up the so-called Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) mess.
The Fallen Souffle Economy
Continued economic troubles may be bringing healthcare’s three decade long run to an end. Can the health system adjust to scarcity?
Marooned in the Horse Latitudes
The US economy languishes while the health system continues adding jobs. Are the two phenomena related? Is America marooned in the horse latitudes?
Optimists Anyonymous!
The world economy crashes, and comes within a hairs’ breadth of a catastrophic worldwide depression. For those of us genetically incapable of pessimism, the crash presented a dilemma. This, my sole posting on Huffington Post, proposed a new support group, called Optimists Anonymous.
The Perpetual Health Care Crisis
Health costs, which have risen at double digit rates for decades, began slowing down in the mid-2000’s, and no-one believed it. This posting, my first, discusses the politics of the perpetual health care crisis, and generated a lot of angry responses.