Now More Than Ever, the Case for Medicaid Expansion
Sam Aptekar
Phuoc Le
By PHUOC LE, MD and SAM APTEKAR
A friend of mine told me the other day, “We’ve seen our insured patient population go from 15% to 70% in the few years since Obamacare.” As a primary care physician in the Midwest, he’s worked for years in an inner-city clinic that serves a poor community, many of whom also suffer from mental illness. Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the clinic constantly struggled to stay afloat financially. Too often patients would be sent to an emergency room because the clinic couldn’t afford to provide some of the simplest medical tests, like an x-ray. Now, ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 19, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Policy Medicaid ACA insurance coverage Medicaid Expansion Obamacare Phuoc Le Sam Aptekar Source Type: blogs
Why Is the USA Only the 35th Healthiest Country in the World?
By ETIENNE DEFFARGES
According the 2019 Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index, the U.S. ranks 35th out of 169 countries. Even though we are the 11th wealthiest country in the world, we are behind pretty much all developed economies in terms of health. In the Americas, not just Canada (16th) but also Cuba (30th), Chile and Costa Rica (tied for 33rd) rank ahead of us in this Bloomberg study.
To answer this layered question, we need to look at the top ranked countries in the Bloomberg Index: From first to 12th, they are Spain; Italy; Iceland; Japan; Switzerland; Sweden; Australia; Singapore; Norway; Israel; Luxe...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 15, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Economics Health disparities Health Policy American healthcare Etienne Deffarges Mediterranean Diet Opioids world health Source Type: blogs
Learning from CVS – When is telemedicine disruptive, and when is it just … cool technology?
By REBECCA FOGG
The Theory of Disruptive Innovation, defined by Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor Clayton Christensen in 1997, explains the process by which simple, convenient and affordable solutions become the norm in industries historically characterized by expensive and complicated ones. Examples of disruption include TurboTax tax preparation software, which disrupted accountants, and Netflix, which disrupted retail video stores and is now giving Hollywood film studios a serious run for their money.
According to Christensen, a critical condition of disruption (but not the only one) is an “enabling technology...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 5, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Tech CVS disruptive innovation Rebecca Fogg Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
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Last fall, voters in three traditionally conservative states — Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah — approved ballot initiatives to expand eligibility for Medicaid. Not only could an estimated 150,000 uninsured residents living below or near the poverty level gain health coverage as a result, but growing evidence shows that Medicaid expansion has led to positive net impacts on state budgets as well as significant reductions in uncompensated care.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - February 26, 2019 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Akeiisa Coleman, Rachel Nuzum, Susan L. Hayes Source Type: blogs
Podcast: A Bipolar and a Schizophrenic Get Triggered by a Movie
We all realize that movies are fiction, but that doesn’t mean that we should take nothing seriously. When a movie makes a portrayal of an individual, for example, that’s full of racial stereotypes, we’re justified in saying that it isn’t okay.
It’s no different for portrayals of mental illness. In this episode, Gabe and Michelle discuss just such a portrayal in a movie that Michelle found highly offensive. Listen to see if you agree.
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“This is just another way to dismiss our feelings.”
– Gabe Howard
Highlights From ‘Schizophrenia in th...
Source: World of Psychology - February 25, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: A Bipolar, a Schizophrenic, and a Podcast Tags: A Bipolar, A Schizophrenic, and a Podcast Movie Review Schizophrenia Source Type: blogs
Failing Healthcare ’ s ‘ Free Market ’ Experiment in US: Single Payer to the Rescue?
This article originally appeared on LinkedIn here. (Source: The Health Care Blog)
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 19, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Politics ACA Health insurance Khurram Nasir Single payer Source Type: blogs
The true cost of being uninsured in America
In a New York Post article dated January 23, 2019, the author states how Americans without health care insurance hit 13.7 percent. This 2.8 percent increase means an additional seven-million Americans lack health coverage as noted by the Gallup survey period. This is not far behind the 18 percent recorded just before the Obamacare mandate […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 8, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/michael-weiss" rel="tag" > Michael Weiss, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Policy Public Health & Washington Watch Source Type: blogs
Health insurance uninsured goes up since individual mandate eliminated
Click on image to enlargeFrom Gallup report on 01/23/19The uninsured rate rose for most subgroups in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter in 2016, when the uninsured rate was lowest. Women, those living in households with annual incomes of less than $48,000 per year, and young adults under the age of 35 reported the greatest increases. Those younger than 35 reported an uninsured rate of over 21%, a 4.8-point increase from two years earlier. And the rate among women -- while still below that of men -- is among the fastest rising, increasing from 8.9% in late 2016 to 12.8% at the end of 2018.At 7.1%, the...
Source: Markham's Behavioral Health - February 6, 2019 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: David G. Markham Source Type: blogs
Watch This Space: 3 Phenomena That Will Drive Health Care Innovation in 2019
By REBECCA FOGG
Back at their desks after the holidays, health care payers, providers and policymakers across the country are staring down their list of 2019 priorities, wondering which they can actually accomplish. Innovation to improve care quality and reduce costs will top many lists, and progress on this front depends, in no small part, on conditions for such innovation in the health care marketplace. Here are three phenomena unfolding there that I’ll be following closely this year to understand what innovators are up against, and how they’re responding.
The legal battle over the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Over ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 31, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Obamacare Value-Based Care health innovation Rebecca Fogg value-based payments Source Type: blogs
Kamala Harris Admits “Medicare for All” Would Kill Private Health Insurance — but So Would a “Public Option”
Michael Kinsley memorably quipped, “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth — some obvious truth he isn’t supposed tosay. ” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) recently committed a gaffe when she admitted that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) Medicare for All proposal wouldoust close to 200 million Americans from their existing health insurance arrangements, a prospect that causes public support for Medicare for All toplummet from 56 percent to 37 percent. Harris thus helpfully illustrated why Sanders ’ proposal is, to be kind, so pie-in-the-sky bonkers that it would never pass Congress.Indeed, only way Medicare for All ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 31, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Michael F. Cannon Source Type: blogs
Recruiting Patients for Clinical Trials Via a Smartphone App
Recruiting subjects for clinical trials has been a recurring challenge over the years including concerns that low-income and minorities are underrepresented in them (see:Low-Income, Uninsured Patients Often Excluded from Clinical Trials;Site-Less Clinical Trials as a Possible Means to Democratize Them). Because of this underrepresentation, the results of trials are often less valid. Here's an excerpt from an article on this topic (see: Barriers to Clinical Trial Recruitment and Possible Solutions: A Stakeholder Survey):A staggering number of clinical trials fail to meet recruitment goals, which leads to delays, early t...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 25, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Source Type: blogs
IVF Externalities
This post co-authored with Robert J. Stillman, M.D., FACOG, Medical Director, Emeritus of Shady Grove Fertility, Rockville, MD.A recent article in theAmerican Economic Reviewexamines externalities —behaviors that impose unpriced costs on third parties—in the context ofin vitro fertilization (IVF).[1] Patients often pay for IVF treatment out of pocket while the costs associated with birth are almost always covered by insurance. Because of this difference in who pays, and how patient choices can impact the size of birth costs, externalities are created when patients ’ decisions impose increased costs on third parties.P...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 24, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Peter Van Doren Source Type: blogs
The Future of the Affordable Care Act: Unscathed by Attacks from the Right, Overtaken on its Left?
By ETIENNE DEFFARGES
Having survived years of attacks from Republicans at the federal level, will the surviving ACA be rendered obsolete by Democrats’ local and state efforts towards universal health care? This could be an ironic twist of fate for Obamacare. Conceived out of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s ideas and an early experiment in Massachusetts under a Republican governor, President Obama’s signature legislative achievement could very well survive its most recent judiciary challenge. But over time the ACA is susceptible to obsolescence, because of the many universal health care solutions being pushed...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 24, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Obamacare Affordable Care Act Etienne Deffarges Politics Source Type: blogs
Medicaid Buy-In: A sensible approach for coverage and cost
Show me the coverage!
The term ‘Medicare for All’ is being bandied about as the campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination gets underway. Declared and potential candidates are warming to the idea.
It’s easy to see why:
After years of trying to defend complex, compromised Obamacare from GOP rhetorical attacks and legislative and administrative undermining, Democrats are going with a program that is popular and well funded
Medicare especially appeals to the middle-aged and older population, who tend to vote. There’s no stigma attached to it
It could be funded and implemented as a sweeping pr...
Source: Health Business Blog - January 23, 2019 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Health plans Policy and politics Medicaid medicaid buy-in medicare medicare for all presidential election Source Type: blogs
