There is a terrible epidemic of a mental derangement that has befouled the minds of not only those in the political, policy and academic communities, but also the minds of the public at large. This mass hysteria is exemplified by this statement extracted from the Rosenthal et al article: “Our results are somewhat remarkable considering the support expressed by virtually all stakeholders for pricing transparency.”

When we are talking about financing our health care system – 17 percent of our GDP – we have to get tax policy right.

The Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula seemed to be an equitable method of slowing the non-sustainable increases in Medicare spending. What happened?

As we assess the severe deficiencies in our primary care infrastructure, it is important to recognize the phenomenal contribution of our National Health Service Corps in helping to meet the primary care needs in rural and urban Health Professional Shortage Areas.

Much attention is being directed today toward the very high costs that plague the U.S. health care system. That attention has not equated with effectiveness in controlling costs, as we witness continued increases in spending in spite of introduction of policies that may be well-meaning but not very effective, that may add to the administrative excesses of our system, and that sometimes are detrimental such as when we erect financial barriers to beneficial health care services.

There are two important take-home points here. One is that we should stop wasting taxpayer funds on both the excesses of the Medicare Advantage plans, and the costly adverse selection burden that they place on the traditional Medicare program.

In a single payer financing system, health care is simply paid for out of a publicly-financed, single risk pool that covers everyone, regardless of how much appropriate health care is provided to each individual.

Today CMS and the IRS released two sets of proposed rules which included the exemptions that will be allowed to avoid having to pay a penalty for not being insured.

We have a crisis in primary care.

Bill Keller, the former executive editor of The New York Times, explains why pay-for-performance (P4P) is a false solution to the problems of high health care costs and mediocre quality. Although he recognizes the correct solution – a single payer system – he follows the lead of other journalists and politicians in immediately dismissing it as being “politically unpalatable.”