joshuago’s health_care Bookmarks

BlueCross BlueShield of Texas' blueprint for denying health policies.

There's no known point at which more aerobic exercise will start to be detrimental, which means that we should just go ahead and do as much exercise as we can.

Both in terms of the political calculus of the Democratic Party, and in terms of making the United States a more equitable society, expanding health-care coverage now and worrying later about its long-term consequences is an eminently defensible strategy. One might even claim that some subterfuge is historically necessary to get great reforms enacted. But as an economics reporter and commentator, I feel obliged to put on my green eyeshade and count the dollars.

Health 2.0 is about putting consumers back in the driver’s seat of their own care and giving tools to doctors and providers to make this happen. The online platform is arguably not the best tool for gathering the kind of detailed life stream data that truly drives behavior change. The mobile platform is much better suited for both data gathering and trending.

Universal health insurance, far from suppressing entrepreneurship, could be a boon to it. The main reason for this is a phenomenon known as "job lock." Job lock refers to the fact that workers are often unwilling to leave a current job that provides health insurance for another position that might not, even if they would be more productive in that other position.

Our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry.

Medical experts say the incidence of DVT followed by pulmonary embolism, which is fatal about 30% of the time, is increasing in the hospital. That's because many patients are older, more obese, and are undergoing more complicated and invasive surgeries.

Health reformers always smash up against two unpalatable truths. We are all going to die. And the demand for interventions that might postpone that day far outstrips the supply.

A wasteful insurance system; distorted incentives; a bias toward treatment; moral hazard; hidden costs and a lack of transparency; curbed competition; service to the wrong customer. These are the problems at the foundation of our health-care system, resulting in a slow rot and requiring more and more money just to keep the system from collapsing.

If a new drug were as effective at saving lives as Peter Pronovost’s checklist, there would be a nationwide marketing campaign urging doctors to use it.