Austin Frakt

Charles Roehrig of the Altarum Institute offers a brilliant graphical presentation of the federal budget pressure we face, with health care playing a central role. He calls his chart the “triangle of painful choices.” That it is! Take a look (and take your time in reading all the labeling to make sure you understand what […]

A thirty-year-old uninsured woman came to the emergency department of a nonprofit hospital in a north Denver suburb, complaining of difficulty swallowing and breathing because of throat swelling. A computed tomography scan was performed, and she was found to have an abscess at the base of her tongue that was encroaching on her airway. The […]

Via an Avik Roy retweet, last night I read this from Loren Heal: Number of people who save money by getting contraceptives through an insurance company: 0 — Loren Heal (@lheal) August 8, 2012 My pithy reply deserves some follow-up. Same number of my brain cells willing to accept this w/o evidence. MT @lheal: Num […]

Actually, this applies to Olympic diving too. From DogHouseDiaries: [Cross-posted at The Incidental Economist]

Sara Rosenbaum and Timothy Westmoreland argue that the CBO and JCT incorrectly interpreted the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Medicaid expansion. That interpretation is an extremely important issue. Provided the GOP doesn’t sweep in November, it may be the most important health policy issue in the next few years, though there will be plenty of […]

In the Journal of the American Medical Assocaiation, Tina Rulli, Ezekiel Emanuel, and David Wendler argue that individuals have a moral duty to buy health insurance. Their argument hangs on the premise that physicians have a moral duty to rescue, e.g., to provide emergency treatment. This duty is written into statute: the Emergency Medical Treatment […]

Max Read at Gawker says, There is no such thing as “politicizing” tragedy. James Holmes did not materialize in a movie theater in Aurora this morning, free of any relationship to law and authority and the structures of power in this country; nor did he exit those relationships and structures by murdering 12 people and […]

My seven tweet “essay” on Medicaid received some praise on Twitter, so I thought I’d drop it here. Links are to the actual tweets. The Medicaid financing problems states face are real. [tweet] At the same time, Medicaid is the least expensive way to pay for health care services. [tweet] Cutting (or not expanding) the […]

I could not have known this would happen at the time, but since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, health insurance has played a large role in the lives of some family and friends. Last year a colleague was diagnosed with cancer. He’s insured through work. Earlier this year, a family member with a […]

Let’s see if we can list all pros and cons for Medicaid expansion we’ve heard articulated. Let’s try to provide links to or about them. I’m making no attempt to exclude reasons that are not supported by evidence. I’m making no attempt to exclude “bad” reasons or include “good” ones. I’m trying to capture them […]