... for the state, at least. Mass. Taxpayers Foundation (Mike Widmer's outfit) says it has only cost the state [an increase of] $88 million a year:An analysis by the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation finds that the cost of this … [Read more...]
Health care: Fighting the right and real battles
I hope that this website cannot be accused of withholding criticism of the current governor. And writing a purely laudatory post makes me feel awkward. But it must be done. Today's New York Times bird's eye view gives us occasion … [Read more...]
Drug makers love ignorance
via Krugman, we see that PhRMA would like to keep us as their pet mushrooms: Kept in the dark, and fed nothing but @#$%. WASHINGTON -- The drug and medical-device industries are mobilizing to gut a provision in the stimulus bill that … [Read more...]
Money changers in the temples of healing
Hope you checked out the Globe's fine work -- an old story, but never too late to tell -- on the historic "gentleman's agreement" to essentially create a health care provider/insurer cartel, between Partners and Blue Cross Blue … [Read more...]
Misunderstanding universal vs. single-payer health care
Yeah, this paragraph on the coming health care debate is a non-sequitur:Harvard economists [they're not economists, they're docs -- how did I miss this?? Another mistake. -- Charley] David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler have … [Read more...]
Health care and the MA example
Over at The Health Care Blog (it's "The", don'tyouknow), Maggie Mahar notes several of the flaws of the Massachusetts model of health care, particularly cautioning us not to take for granted the assertions that getting us to … [Read more...]
“Take a backbone pill”
In case you missed it, from Friday's Globe unsigned editorial:Last summer, Governor Patrick signed a health cost control bill that included strict new limits on financial ties between drug companies and doctors. Unfortunately, the … [Read more...]
Lack of disclosure still doesn’t add up.
Last Friday, the Globe got its mitts on the draft regulations for the pharmaceutical company gift ban. Monday morning I wrote a post decrying the lack of a disclosure requirement for pharma companies disclose how much and to whom … [Read more...]
Health insurers [heart] reform?
It's not too surprising that health insurers would be for mandated universal coverage, since under the current Massachusetts-led reform paradigm, it means guaranteed universal business for them. Why shouldn't they be for requiring … [Read more...]
PhRMA and barnacles
As Farnkoff notes below, today we're faced with the disappointing news that the House has shamefully caved to the PhRMA industry, stripping the ban on gifts that was in the Senate version, and allowing the industry to "police itself" … [Read more...]