Grand Rounds 5:2
Grand Rounds is up at Monash Medical Student, featuring a post from yours truly. Thanks to Jeffrey for hosting it this week.
Tue, September 30 2008 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
High risk
I read a few lines into Ezra Klein’s post on McCain’s health care plan thinking that it no longer applied to me. Ezra’s point is that McCain has proposed a massive restructuring of health care access in the U.S., under the guise of a change to the tax code. The crux of this proposal is [...]
Mon, September 29 2008 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
McCaincer
Apparently, liberal groups are now launching attack ads demanding that McCain release his medical records. This is one of the rare moments when I will jump to McCain’s defense: I think these ads are a bad idea. I don’t vote for a person, much less a body. I vote for ideas. Candidates might be the [...]
Thu, September 25 2008 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
There and here
Kevin, MD thinks it’s just awful that a man died in a Canadian emergency room. Of the patient in question: “If you approached him he would certainly talk to you, but rarely initiated, would not ask for anything. He was not a demanding person at all,” said Garth Reesor, the mission’s chief operating officer. The [...]
Thu, September 25 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Hypocrates
I have argued previously that health care is not a primary right, but a civil right. I want now to engage the argument against health care as a right in more depth, specifically to say that it can only be symptomatic of acute hypocrisy. The argument, in its typical presentation, is that doctors provide a [...]
Thu, September 25 2008 » Uncategorized » 7 Comments
Ride for your life
One of the things about being sick is that you don’t have to worry about all the stuff that normal people ought to worry about. For example, I avoided raw vegetables for about three years, contrary to all sorts of dietary and nutritional expert advice. My system just couldn’t handle anything that rough. Same for [...]
Wed, September 24 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
He will be missed
Man Succumbs To 7-Year Battle With Health Insurance DENVER—After years of battling crippling premiums and agonizing deductibles, local resident Michael Haige finally succumbed this week to the health insurance policy that had ravaged his adult life. [...] Once a healthy and happy father of two, Haige saw his life forever change seven years ago when [...]
Tue, September 23 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Against hacks
It turns out I am not so much against mashups as I am against hacks; Matthew Holt at THCB explains why: So who does Health Affairs choose to create a middling compromise between these two? It chooses Mark Pauly, the only leading academic health economist among the Ivy League elite who’s a paid up member [...]
Tue, September 23 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
How others see us
Maggie Mahar posts at THCB (and also Health Beat) about a talk economist Uwe Reinhardt gave on the subject of health care reform. You should read the whole thing – probably twice. Just to draw a contrast to my last post, I will quote this bit: “If you want to kill a health care proposal, [...]
Fri, September 19 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Northern exposure
In certain circles, taking the piss out of Canada’s health care system is almost a competitive sport, so much that it’s a safe bet that when Canada pops up these days, it’s for that reason alone. Take, for example, the New York Times blog of Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner posted this link, with no further [...]
Thu, September 18 2008 » Uncategorized » No Comments
