Private Hospitals in Europe

Europe is known for having single-payer, government provided healthcare.  But  just because there is significant government involvement in the financing of medical services does not mean that private hospitals are non-existent. An interesting series of post by HealthcareEuropa looks at private hospitals that operate in Bulgaria, Turkey and Germany.

Publicly Provided Prevention Health Plan

Most physicians, public health officials and economists believe that most individuals do not receive sufficient levels of preventive care.  Only half of American adults receive all recommended screening and preventive care. The Partnership for Prevention has a plan to increase preventive care utilization. The organization proposes introducing: “..federally funded insurance programs [that] would provide highly…

Affordability Index

Everyone knows that health insurance is getting more and more expensive.  But how can we measure how expensive it is?  A paper by UC-San Diego professors Richard Kronick and Todd Gilmer creates an “affordability index” to measure this.  The affordability index is equal to the per-capita, non-elderly health spending divided by the median income.  In…

UnitedHealth Group Settlement

Marketplace reports that UnitedHealth Group has just reached a large settlement with the State of New York.  What did UnitedHealth Group do wrong? According to the State of New York, it was overcharging patients who went out of the network.  The N.Y. Times gives a good example:  “The patient might receive a doctor’s bill for $100,…

Book Review: The Great American Heart Hoax

A new book by Dr. Michael Ozner takes on the cardiovascular surgery industry head-on.  The aptly titled Great American Heart Hoax claims that although insurers pay $60 billion per year  invasive cardiovascular surgery, 70%-90% of these procedures are unnecessary.   The book has three major themes: What is heart disease?  Why is heart surgery a…

5 Health Care Myths

Bob Laszewski has a great posts on 5 false  “solutions” to reduce health care costs.  These are: EMR: Making electronic medical records universal will greatly improve health care quality, but the impact on cost will be minor.  Better quality care can reduce iatrogenic injuries and reduce cost, but the cost reduction–if any–will likely be small…

Pharmaceuticals as an excuse, not treatment

Should doctors prescribe pharmaceuticals to patients who have heart disease.  Statins and ACE inhibitors are frequently prescribed to patients with cardiovascular problems.  These medications have been shown to decrease the risk of heart attack in clinical trials, but could they actually increase the risk of a heart attack in the real world? The answer is…