The last panel at “Putting Patients First” was composed of specialists: Dr. Wes, who posted his comments on his blog; Dr. Rich from Covert Rationing; Dr. Jim Herndon; and Kim from Emergiblog. As for the primary care panel, I’ll put the Q&A in a separate post. On this post, I’ll first summarize the remarks, then [...]
Tags: care, docs, ppf
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Fri, July 24 2009 » Uncategorized » 4 Comments
This post is the Q&A follow-up to my previous post, on the primary care panel at the PPF event last week. I mentioned before that I felt the questions for the “Putting Patients First” panelists were pushing for conservative answers. You will now see this in several of the questions Rea Blakey asks; of course, [...]
Tags: care, docs, ppf
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Wed, July 22 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
Having dispensed with the warm-up act and sideshow, I can now get to the main events from last week’s “Putting Patients First” event. This is the primary panel, and I will also write up the specialists panel. Since the prepared remarks and the Q&A have a different flavor to them, I am going to break [...]
Tags: care, costs, docs, ppf
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Wed, July 22 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Evan Falchuk has a good round-up of blog responses to the Putting Patients First. This is helpful and we should be grateful to him for putting it together, but mostly I want you to read the part where he calls me a “very smart gentleman”. Evan is being thrice charitable in as many words. Also [...]
Tags: misc, ppf
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Mon, July 20 2009 » Uncategorized » 3 Comments
I’ve already posted a little bit about Paul Ryan’s speech, but I want to write something a bit more substantive. It was more or less a collection of GOP-crafted, pollster-tested talking points designed to scare the bejeebus out of ordinary Americans, but I will use this post to give the most charitable response I can. [...]
Tags: care, pols, ppf
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Mon, July 20 2009 » Uncategorized » 3 Comments
I have LOTS to write about from this morning’s “Putting Patients First” – I’ll probably milk this in posts through next week. Let me just say right now that I am glad and grateful it happened, even if I still regret the absence of meaningful patient participation. But hey – the LaRouche people were there [...]
Tags: care, docs, pols, ppf
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Fri, July 17 2009 » Uncategorized » 3 Comments
Tomorrow’s the big day: they’ll be “Putting Patients First” at the National Press Club. The last panel of the event is on specialist care; it includes Dr. Rich from Covert Rationing, Dr. Wes, and Kim from Emergiblog (yay, nurses!). This, then, is my final set of questions: 1) Since I know the answer to all [...]
Tags: care, cost, docs, laws, pols, ppf, tech
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Thu, July 16 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
This Friday’s “Putting Patients First” has a primary care panel; Kevin, MD and Dr. Rob are on it, along with two other names I don’t recognize. Let me say first, I am totally in the tank for primary care. Kevin, MD and I don’t see eye to eye on… anything? But I agree with him [...]
Tags: care, cost, docs, pols, ppf
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Wed, July 15 2009 » Uncategorized » 4 Comments
Robert Goldberg, PhD*, is the policy expert for the panel discussion this Friday. He is against any form of government intervention in health care, and has defended our health care system by suggesting that “every American” has access to the same level of care as Senator Ted Kennedy. Dr. Goldberg works for the Center for [...]
Tags: care, docs, pols, ppf
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Tue, July 14 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Putting Patients First doesn’t happen until Friday, but already I’m thinking about questions I could ask. The problem is, I’ll have way more questions than time to ask them – so I thought I might as well ask the questions here, first. I plan to do this again each day until Friday – one for [...]
Tags: care, laws, pols, ppf
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Mon, July 13 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments