A Patient’s Story–How Much Can or Should– Your Doctor Tell You About Potential Risks?
Below a non-fiction story from Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine, “an online magazine of personal experience in health.” Pulse is both a magazine and an online community that provides a chance for patients, doctors, nurses, social workers to come together, and share their experiences.
The magazine’s founders write: “Despite the large numbers of health magazines and medical journals, few openly describe the emotional and practical realties of health care. We at Pulse believe that our stories and poems have the power to bring us together and promote compassionate health care. “ Pulse was launched by th...
Source: Health Beat - May 18, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Maggie Mahar Tags: endometrial cancer malpractice suit Pulse: voices from the heart of medicine shared decision making follow-up surgery lymlymphectomy/omentectomy lymph-vessel blockage lymphedema Source Type: blogs
The Next Plague: Alzheimer’s
In the 1970s and 1980s, a plague called AIDS swept through this country. Like a medieval scourge it was mysterious, incurable, and ruthless as it killed those who were far too young to die.
Now, baby-boomers have reason to fear a new scourge: It won’t cut them down in their youth, but if they dodge heart disease and beat cancer they may find themselves trapped in their bodies, watching their minds dissolve.
Did you know that a woman who is now 65 stands a 20% chance of dying of Alzheimer’s? (See Michael Kinsley’s essay in the New Yorker.)
On Bloomberg View Matthew C. Klein has put together a booklet of ...
Source: Health Beat - April 26, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Maggie Mahar Tags: Uncategorized How Americans Die Alzheimer's Bloomberg suicide Source Type: blogs
If Democrats Campaign on Obamacare Will They Lose White Votes?
Recently, the New York Times ran a front-page story reporting that Democrats running for Congress are reluctant to “run on Obamacare.” Instead, they are “running away from it, while Republicans are prospering by demanding its repeal.” The problem, according to the Times, is that discussions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tend to focus on “coverage for those of modest means,” and this “has led white voters to see the law as an act of government redistribution to the 15 percent of the population that is uninsured.”
As proof, the paper cites a five-month-old New York Times/CBS News poll showing that “j...
Source: Health Beat - April 25, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Maggie Mahar Tags: campaigning on Obamacare median income running away from Obamacare mid-term elections Obamacare and mid-term elections polls and Obamcare running on Obamacare white voters and Obamacare Ezekiel Emanuel mid-term elections and Obamacare Source Type: blogs
Health Care Spending Spikes: Why?
Recent data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reveals that during the last three months of 2013, spending on health care rose at an annual rate of 5.3%. The trend continued this year, with spending climbing 6.2% on a year-over-year basis in January and 6.7% in February. Now some of Obamacare’s fiercest critics are saying “I told you so.”
“We knew this was coming,” gloats Douglas Holtz-Eakin, John McCain’s former economic adviser. “The question now is whether we can hold spending down.” It’s worth recalling that Holtz-Eakin, who served as CBO director under George...
Source: Health Beat - April 15, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Maggie Mahar Tags: beginning of 2014 Bureau of Economic Analysis final quarter of 2013 health care inflation Medicare spending spike in health care spending BEA Douglas Holt-Eakin Drew Altman Larry Levitt Peter Orszag spending slowdown spikes Source Type: blogs
How Much Will You Pay for Health Care in 2015? What You Need to Know About Healthcare Inflation-Part 1
Probably you have seen headlines like this one: “O-Care premiums to skyrocket.”
The warning, which was posted on The Hill, seemed designed to cheer conservatives distraught by Obamcare’s enrollment numbers. It began by announcing that next year, “premiums will double in some parts of the country. The sticker shock will likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.”
Where did the reporter get her information? The story is based on interviews with “health insurance officials.”
Why would they issue such dire predictions? Perhaps the...
Source: Health Beat - April 13, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Maggie Mahar Tags: 2015 premiums Exchange premiums Exchanges health care costs slowing health care inflation Obamacare Drew Altman Ezekiel Emanuel premiums slowing Source Type: blogs
How Many of Obamacare’s New Enrollees Were Uninsured Last Year? Why It Doesn’t Matter
Charles Gaba, the enrollment guru who has been tracking Obamacare sign-ups since October, now estimates that by April 15, some 17 million Americans will have purchased their own insurance policies either in the Obamacare Exchanges (8 million) or off-Exchange (9 million)
But how many of them were uninsured and how many were simply replacing policies that Obamacare had forced insurers to cancel? This is the question conservatives ask. After all they argue, if most of these folks already had coverage, we have just wasted a great deal of time and money moving them from a policy they chose to one that President Obama prefer...
Source: Health Beat - April 7, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Maggie Mahar Tags: Affordable Care Act Charles Gaba enrolling in Obamacare how many were uninsured underinsured Source Type: blogs
