Category Archives: Universal BS

ROMNEYCARE WRECKS HOSPITAL SYSTEM

The vaunted Massachusetts “universal coverage” plan has let so many patients fall through the cracks that a key Boston health care system is going broke providing care to the uninsured. The Boston Globe reports that Cambridge Health Alliance is facing a “catastrophic” loss:
The alliance … says it is being hit hard by the state’s new healthcare reform […]

EMR: PROGRESSIVE PANACEA

One way single-pay advocates kid themselves about the cost of government-mandated “universal” health care is to ascribe magical powers to EMR. Typically delusional on this point is Maggie Mahar, who advises her readers that electronic medical records “guarantee many fewer errors, and much greater efficiency.”
I have been an enthusiastic advocate of EMR implementation in every hospital with which […]

HEALTH CARE CRISIS-MONGERING

Peter Chowka has written a good piece on the “universal health care” project contemplated by Barack Obama and other Democrats. One of the article’s best passages involves the effect of incessant media crisis-mongering. Discussing a recent public opinion survey, Chowka points out the following:
Vast majorities of those sampled – including 93 per cent of Democrats – […]

PRE-EMPTING MANDATES IN ARIZONA

Not everyone is content to rely on hope or prayer to forestall a government-imposed health insurance mandate. In Arizona,  doctors Jeffrey Singer and Eric Novack are gathering signatures for statewide ballot initiative called The Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act. 
The measure, which would amend the Arizona constitution if approved by the voters, would preserve consumer choice […]

GOLDSMITH ON MANDATES

Respected health care analyst Jeff Goldsmith has a great post over at The Health Care Blog, in which he makes the following point about mandated universal coverage:
To simply assume that extending coverage to the 47 million uninsured somehow assures access and, therefore, better health, requires multiple leaps of faith. There are many physical, cultural and […]

ARNOLDCARE TERMINATED

A variety of “progressive” health care analysts are still deluding themselves about the future of “universal” health care. Ezra Klein, as I wrote last week, is as clueless as ever on this point, and Maggie Mahar’s most recent post makes it clear that she is still out in fantasyland:
Perhaps we are entering a new era, where we […]

DENYING CARE BASED ON AGE AND LIFESTYLE

Health care, like all finite commodities, must be rationed. The only real choice involves the mechanism by which that rationing is carried out. It can be based on market forces or it can be based on the whims of some priviledged elite. An article in yesterday’s Telegraph suggests that the former might be more compassionate than the latter:

Smokers, heavy drinkers, […]

THE BILL COMES DUE IN MASSACHUSETTS

Cheap, government-subsidized health insurance is popular. Who woulda thunk it? Apparently not the geniuses who govern the state of Massachusetts. The Boston Globe reports the following:
Spending on the state’s landmark health insurance initiative would rise by more than $400 million next year … The biggest driver of the cost increase is projected growth in the number […]

TRANSPLANTS AND TEARS

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”? […]

ROBERT LASZEWSKI: OBAMA RIGHT ON MANDATES

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 […]