John Goodman's Health Policy Blog » At Other Sites

Wrong Doses, Compensation for Organ Donors, and Bending the Curve on Health Care Costs

John Goodman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:35:19 +0000

Tara Parker-Pope (NYT Health Blog): Why do patients take the wrong dose? Because they don’t know the difference between teaspoons and tablespoons. (A 1992 study of dosing errors.)

Jacob Goldstein (WSJ Health Blog): In this country, it’s legal to compensate donors of eggs, sperm and blood, but it’s illegal to pay organ donors. Compensating donors of bone marrow… is also illegal. But a lawsuit in federal court could change that.

Byron Caplan (Econlog): If Obama really wants to “bend the curve” of health care costs why not try outsourcing Medicare and Medicaid to India?

2009/11/25

John Goodman — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:48:13 +0000

Keith Hennessey finds penalty tax inequity: In the year 2019 [under the Reid bill] about 16 million U.S. citizens would be uninsured and be forced to pay a penalty tax of almost $800 per year. About 8 million illegal aliens would be uninsured and would owe no penalty tax. Both groups would get their health care through a combination of out-of-pocket spending and use of uncompensated care in emergency rooms and free health clinics. This seems unfair.

Maggie Mahar (Health Beat): My confidence [in passing a health reform bill] is buoyed by the opposition’s growing virulence. Fear has turned to rage as they realize that the liberals may win.

Merrill Goozner (The Health Care Blog) on the mammogram controversy: The Obama administration’s commitment to cost control in health care can now be summed up in four words: Not on our watch.

Gene Steuerle (Urban Institute) on what all the health reform bills are ignoring: Two year old tax returns can’t deal with the fact that over the course of a year, well over a third of workers suffer a bout of unemployment, leave the workforce, enter it, partially retire, move to part-time employment, get married, get divorced, have a child, or have a child leave home. Same point was made by yours truly here.

2009/11/13

John Goodman — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:30:08 +0000

Joe Flower (The Health Blog): Free-market competition fails in health care. Whereas suppression of the market is working swimmingly? (I couldn’t make this stuff up.)

Marcia Angell (Huffington Post): “I would rather see us do nothing now. [The House health care reform bill] throws more money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system, with only a few improvements at the edges, and it augments the central role of the investor-owned insurance industry.”

Kaiser (Health News) on the origin of “Death Panels”: The charge was first made against the Ford Administration.

Jason Shifrin (Healthcare Economist) has a good summary of who wins and who loses in the Pelosi bill.

2009/10/29

John Goodman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:15:12 +0000

Protesters disrupt AHIP meeting with sing-song: Matthew Holt (Health Care Blog) thinks this is fun.

Maggie Mahar (Health Beat): (a) there is waste in the system, therefore (c) we need reform. Exercise for the reader: Identify the minor premise (b) that would turn this non sequitur into a real syllogism.

Urban Institute: Study estimates how bad things will get without health reform. Missing: How much worse it will be with reform.

Bruce Douglas (at KevinMD.com) “Money should not be mentioned, directly or indirectly, because health care, at any level, cannot be equated in dollars and cents.” CBO budget problem solved: just don’t mention the cash.

Jason Shafrin (Healthcare Economist) encourages Dr. Douglas to return to reality.

James C. Capretta and Thomas P. Miller (National Review): less intrusive solutions for pre-existing conditions.