The two are irrevocably tied together. That sad reality has been largely ignored in the hysteria surrounding the Nataline Sarkisyan case. Because there aren’t enough organs to go around, every patient receiving one has several counterparts who won’t. And these counterparts will die.
Remember, back in Econ 101, when the professor droned on and on about “opportunity cost”? […]
Some unscrupulous advocacy groups and politicians have sought to exploit the tragedy of Nataline Sarkisyan for purposes of promoting single-payer health care. However, as Scott Gottlieb points out in this WSJ article, countries with government-run health systems don’t do as well as the U.S. in the area of transplants:
On balance, data suggests that in the U.S. transplant patients do quite […]
A variety of Left-leaning pundits, like Paul Krugman, have attacked Barack Obama for pointing out that simply passing a law requiring everyone to buy health insurance will not address the underlying cause of the uninsured problem.
Less partisan policy types, however, are not so quick to condemn Obama for telling the truth. Robert Laszewski, for example, has a good post in which he declares the […]
Well, the usual suspects are gleefully touting the latest Commonwealth Fund study as if it settles the health care debate in their favor. Here’s the chart that has set their hearts aflutter:
Looks bad. But, as is usually the case with the Commonwealth Fund, there is less here than meets the eye. The most significant problem with the study […]
Arnold Kling, who yesterday recommended that thoughtful Libertarians abandon Ron Paul, begins this post with a provisional definiition of a cult:
For now, let’s say that you are in a cult if you have a set of beliefs where your emotional defense mechanisms have shut down any receptivity to what others would consider reasonable doubt.
And he goes on […]
Not long ago, Shadowfax took issue with my use of the term “faux-progressive.” In response, I explained that I use the term to designate people who pose as progressives but spend most of their time defending the status quo. The New Hampshire primary has provided a textbook example of this phenomenon.
Before Tuesday, most major polls showed […]
Graham seems really excited about this load of BS from AP/Yahoo, so I hate to rain on his parade. But duty compels me to do so. The poll purports to show that only 34% the public want a private sector health care system and 65% support a “universal” government-run alternative. In reality, it shows nothing of the kind.
For this or any […]
Kevin, MD links to a lively debate between Graham and Panda, now joined by California Medicine Man and Medskool, about the merits and meaning of social justice. Graham believes that Panda doesn’t understand the concept, so he offers the following:
Social justice, as I understand, is about equality. Distributing shared, scarce public resources as equitably as possible.
But that […]
The reason most conspiracy theories fail the giggle test is that they require implausible levels of venality and cooperation on the part of the conspirators. An illustrative example of this can be found in Dr. Rich’s theory on why cardiac arrest patients purportedly don’t receive defibrillation as quickly in hospitals as they get it in public places.
But, unfortunately, there is a big and fundamental difference between […]
Ron Paul’s primary contribution to last night’s Republican debate at St. Anselm College was to provide comic relief. Nowhere was that more evident than in his answer to Charlie Gibson’s tendentious question about “why we can’t afford medical insurance for everybody”:
How can we afford a trillion-dollar war and we can’t afford health care? Well, that’s the reason. […]
