Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Reports of the increased obesity in the United States and its adverse effects on health outcomes are common. The AARP finds that 3 out of 10 American adults are obese (“Obesity in OECD countries“). MedPage Today reports that poor teenagers are more likely to be overweight than their non-poor peers (“…Teens from poorer families are…
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has released a scathing report criticizing the medical procedures Parexel used in testing the TGN1412 drug. In-Pharma Technologist.com (“Parexcel back in hot water…“) reports that six individuals suffered severe side effects such as organ failure swelling of body parts due to poor administration of the trials…
On NPR’s Marketplace, my favorite radio program, there is an interesting interview with Muhammed Yunus. Mr. Yunus is the founder and director of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The bank describes itself as follows: GB [Grameen Bank] provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh, without any collateral. At GB, credit is a…
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s (KFF) 2005 Employer Health Benefits Survey, the estimated number of firms who will offer high deductible health plans has increased to 20% in 2005. This is up from 5% in 2003 and 10% in 2004. Despite this increase, only 3.9% of workers–about 2.4 million in total–are covered either by a…
Health Wonk Review #7 is available at InsureBlog.
Charles Wheelen is a respected journalist, author and lecturer. He is currently a lecturer in public policy at the University of Chicago, but he is most famous for his best selling book “Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science.” In his blog, he cites the top ten reasons why health care costs are increasing. While the…
Fard Johnmar of the Healthcare Vox blog has written a post regarding the introduction of Google Co-op. Google Co-op allows users to perform detailed searches regarding medical issues. You can search by symptom, condition, medical test, etc. Johnmar states that: Whatâs interesting about this service is that Google is not taking responsibility for vetting healthcare…
Forbes reported last week (“Millions…“) that millions of dollars are wasted each year due to unnecessary tests. Their findings are based on an article by Dr. Dan Merenstein and co-authors and is to appear in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. What is the definition of an unnecessary test? The United…
Alex Tabarrok of the Marginal Revolution blog, has an interesting post regarding economics, long known as the dismal science. First off, he has an entertaining excerpt from the Jon Stewart show: Jon Stewart: Uh, the way you’ve explained the tax cuts doesn’t really seem fair. John Hodgman: Fairness isn’t really the point. They don’t call…
I just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a very entertaining novel about the maturation of a boy who grew up in Afghanistan and later emigrated to the United States. In the book, there is a wonderful passage where the protagonist’s father lectures him on morality. His speech is one with which most…