The opioid crisis in numbers

Most people who spend time in health care are aware of the opioid crisis. But how bad is it really? The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation provides a number of interactive graphs to quantitatively describe how the opioid crisis has evolved between 2000 and 2017. For instance, the the graph below shows…

Links

Free college tuition? Tennessee to turn Medicaid into a block grant? Was there a white collar job apocalypse? Does automatic re-enrollment matter for Obamacare plan uptake? How will national health reform affect workers comp?

Single payer = single data point

Bernie Sanders and others are advocating a Medicare for All system.  At first glance this is a sensible approach.  Why not allow the government to provide equitable health insurance coverage for all?  Don’t we want to let all Americans have high quality care?  Why not use the power of the federal government to help negotiate…

Do generic drugs cost too little?

Much of my blog discusses the value of new, innovative treatments.  In the current patent environment, drug patents expire and low cost generics enter the market.  This results in huge surplus value accruing to consumers.  However, those benefits only occur if the supply of effective, low-cost generic medication reach patients.  Unfortunately, that is not always…