…I’m putting forward and what Mr. Prentice has to offer.” http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/04/29/albertas-health-care-system-needs-new-prescription-ndp-leader-rachel-notley-tells-calgary-crowd **** Alberta election 2015 results: NDP wave sweeps across province in historic win CBC News, May 6, 2015 It’s…
Why Obamacare can’t lower costs
…Sullivan is an attorney, activist and writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, The New England Journal of Medicine and the Los Angeles Times. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_obamacare_cant_lower_costs_20140509#…
Medicaid expansion would save lives
…LSU Hospital New Orleans; Joseph Kanter, M.D., is chief resident, emergency department, Interim LSU Hospital; and Elmore Rigamer, M.D., is medical director of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans. http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2014/03/a_plea_for_medicaid_coverage_f.html…
First Million-Dollar Drug Near After Prices Double on Dozens of Treatments
…medicines. To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Langreth in New York at rlangreth@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net Andrew Pollack http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-30/drug-prices-defy-gravity-doubling-for-dozens-of-products.html…
What do the projected health insurance premium increases mean to us?
…unsustainable. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/us/health-insurance-companies-seek-big-rate-increases-for-2016.html **** Comment: By Don McCanne, MD Although it will be about three months before we have the final health insurance premiums for 2016, the information we have already…
URGENT: NEJM on TPP; One Day Left!
…drugs but not on new uses of old drugs or new forms of known drugs that do not increase therapeutic efficacy. These provisions have paved the way for generic versions…
Amazon’s health care experiment shows exactly why we need Medicare for All
We have to remove profit from the health care equation, just like Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase intend to do.
…American economy.” He’s right. But, combined, these three companies employ about 1.1 million people. Even accounting for dependents, this new company will, at best, serve 1% of the population. I’m…
Safety Concerns About New Drugs Revealed
…2014 What’s safer: a newly approved drug or one that has been on the market much longer? Newer drugs have a one in three chance of acquiring a black box…
ACA plan renewal leads to rate shock and delayed tax refunds
…to year, as issuers adjust premiums, offer new, narrow network plans, enter new Marketplaces, and expand or contract service areas. A recent study of proposed premium changes in the largest…
Atul Gawande and the overutilization narrative
…caught on a scan. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/11/overkill-atul-gawande **** Comment: By Don McCanne, MD Yesterday’s Quote of the Day discussed the harm done by our health care reform agenda that overemphasizes attacking overutilization…
Health Insurance Companies Seek Big Rate Increases for 2016
…28,600 consumers. “Kansans who purchased these individual plans since 2014 were older, in general, than expected and required more medical services than anticipated,” the company told federal health officials. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/us/health-insurance-companies-seek-big-rate-increases-for-2016.html…
Down With the Copay
We can’t eliminate the profit motive in health care without eliminating copays.
…physicians tried to ensure their communities could still get medical care through a nonprofit monthly “subscription fee.” As these community plans expanded in scope, their rising monthly premiums were eventually…
