Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
On a lighter note… If you are a fan of NBC’s “The Office” and need a laugh, please take a look at the following clip on YouTube. In this video from season one, Dwight Schrute (played by Rainn Wilson) is put in charge of choosing a health insurance plan for his co-workers.
The New York Times has an interesting article (“China’s Muslims…“) of how AIDS is affecting Muslims in western China. The newspaper reports that there is a “sea change by the Chinese public health establishment” in which intravenous drug users are now being sent to treatment instead of jail. The major impetus for this change was…
What is the most efficient procedure to immunize large groups of people? This is an interesting question, especially considering the potential need to distribute vast amounts of medicine in the case of a terrorist attack. Since the CDC’s Vaccinations for Children (VFC) program recommended flu shots for that all children age six months and to…
Some interesting readings for your weekend… The Health Affairs blog gives a succinct explanation comparing the U.S. health care system to the typical European model. (“U.S. Pluralism vs. International ‘Systemness‘”) On Wednesday, the Health Business Blog reported that Toyota is starting its own medical clinic to provide primary and outpatient care for its employees at…
In an interesting article, the Gooznews website asks “How good is your primary care physician?” The answer, at least for the U.S., is not so good. Referencing a 2006 Health Affairs survey of primary care physicians in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Gooznews cites the slow…
Having a safe and reliable water supply is a prerequisite for longevity. In China’s arid northern region, procuring water has always been a problem. In this week’s Economist, the magazine reports (“A modest proposal“) on some of China’s latest efforts to bring water to this region. The Chinese have already been hard at work diverting…
Nancy Johnson, a co-author of the Medicare prescription drug, has lost in her bid for re-election. According to Fox News (“GOP Rep. Johnson loses…“), the 12-term Republican representative has lost to Democrat Chris Murphy in the Connecticut house race. The Boston Herald (“Johnson loses…“) reports: “Murphy, 33, has slammed Johnson for her support of the…
Every year Transparency International puts out a Corruption Perceptions Index ranking each country’s corruption level. The index is constructed from a survey of various resident and non-resident country experts as well as business leaders (see methodology here). The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index gives us one clear conclusion: there is a lot of corruption in the…
It is often very difficult to determine price data for various medical procedures. With the exception of Medicare or Medicaid data, hospitals often do not publish their prices for each service and even when the prices are provided they rarely correspond to the true prices paid. Published prices often do not take into account different…
Health professionals are worried about the growing number of people with tuberculosis. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) website states that “in 1993 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared tuberculosis to be a global emergency.” The HPA reports the following TB statistics. TB cases (thousands) TB infection rate per 100,000 Africa 2573 356 The Americas 363…