Mother Nature knows best.  There is a lot of truth to that old adage.  Our bodies are the result of a process of natural selection that has been going on for millions of years and is still going on today.  Our bodies were optimized for a certain way of living.  As we have changed our way of living (think junk food and sitting in front of the TV), our bodies are trying to catch up, but cannot keep up over the short run of only a century or two.  Changing the way we live has had some very bad effects…
Continue Reading Exercise – The Wonder Drug

Our health care delivery system is deeply flawed.  It is obscenely expensive, delivers spotty care that depends largely on where you live and how much money you have, and leaves many Americans out in the cold.  These flaws create ripples that cause problems across society.  One of the effects of the flawed system is exemplified by the very large malpractice verdicts arising out of birth injuries.

One of the great joys a person can experience in this life is the birth of a child.  It is almost literally a miracle that there is a new person in the world who…
Continue Reading Another Ripple Effect Of Our Flawed Healthcare System

That is the story with Medicare Advantage plans.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  The concept was given birth by the ideologues who believe that private industry can always do a better and more efficient job than the government can.  Medicare was spending a lot of money paying for care for its senior enrollees.  What if we let private industry in on the program?  Surely, private industry could provide the same or better care for less money than those wasteful bureaucrats over at the Medicare offices.  It didn’t turn out that way or come even close.

In…
Continue Reading It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

Recently I posted about deceptive techniques hospitals are using to enhance fees. Today I am writing about an article by Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a frequent critic of the many failings of our health care delivery system.  A recent column by Dr. Makary in the Washington Post discusses how Medicare’s payment system has unintentionally played a role in incentivizing hospitals to create these money-making schemes.

The starting point here is the fact that hospitals charge a great deal more for a procedure performed inside the walls of the hospital than the…
Continue Reading Hospitals Are At It Again

Free markets and the laws of supply and demand have been very good to us.  We have a strong economy, good worker productivity and a huge variety of products available at affordable prices.  In order for the laws of supply and demand to work efficiently, however, they require certain conditions such as transparency about prices and the absence of large barriers to entry.  Both of those important factors are missing from the healthcare marketplace and we see the results all around us.  Healthcare deserts, outrageous prices for drugs, widely different prices for the same service in the same local area,…
Continue Reading Healthcare Is Too Important To Be Left To The Marketplace