Buried in Steven Brill’s convoluted tome are important truths about how to reform our health care delivery system.
Health Care
Happy Birthday, Methadone!
Maintenance therapy proved its value half a century ago. We need it today to combat a rise in opioid use. But many courts and prisons cling to a Reagan-era “Just say no” mind-set.
The American Way of Dying
How our refusal to face up to the realities of aging and mortality causes needless suffering.
After Obamacare
A frenzy of hospital mergers could leave the typical American family spending 50 percent of its income on health care within ten years—and blaming the Democrats. The solution requires banning price discrimination by monopolistic hospitals.
Special Deal
The shadowy cartel of doctors that controls Medicare.
A Day in the Life of a Primary Care Doctor
A harried pediatrician tells her story.
The Doctor Cartel Will See You Now
Conservatives have long warned that government-mandated universal health care will lead to long wait times to see doctors, as in Canada and the United Kingdom. But the truth is that we already have long waits to see some kinds of doctors in the United States. It takes nearly a month (twenty-seven days) for the average… Read more »
First Teach No Harm
The U.S. spends $13 billion a year subsidizing graduate medical education. Yet almost all of this money winds up producing the wrong kinds of doctors in the wrong places, with America’s most elite teaching hospitals being the worst offenders.
Consequential Drift
The government program where party differences have widened the most, and matter the most, is Medicaid.
The Republican Case for Waste in Health Care
Conservatives love to apply “cost-benefit analysis” to government programs—except in health care. In fact, working with drug companies and warning of “death panels,” they slipped language into Obamacare banning cost-effectiveness research. Here’s how that happened, and why it can’t stand.
