After getting his proposed budget cuts to Medicare stuffed in March (cuts to doctors and hospitals, of course), Pres. Trump zoomed down to hit the Florida hustings to cheer on the continued survival of this beloved program. He hit the premier gray ghetto in The Villages, promising to protect Medicare from “socialism,’ which is akin to…
Often writing for this site, I am reminded of the fantastically apt Jeff Goldblum line from “Jurassic Park”: “YEAH, BUT YOUR SCIENTISTS WERE SO PREOCCUPIED WITH WHETHER OR NOT THEY COULD THAT THEY DIDN’T STOP TO THINK IF THEY SHOULD.” Amen. Right out front, let me cheerfully admit that I don’t like much of what…
The chief executive for Blue Cross and Blue Shield for North Carolina has resigned, following an arrest for drunk driving earlier this summer. Dr. Patrick Conway, “a prominent federal official before he came to Blue Cross of North Carolina two years ago,” was spotted weaving between lanes, and he sideswiped a tractor-trailer. His two children were in…
See, now this is the kind of thing I’ve been talking about: today’s headlines regarding medicine and health care are often so stupid, so incomprehensibly ridiculous, that it’s getting tough to tell whether or not I’m being had by well-crafted parody. Take for instance, the opioid “CRISIS.” Apart from inviting state officials to further meddle in practices…
Prior to 1965, the American Medical Association fought against the creation of Medicare, warning – correctly – that it would lead to “socialized medicine.” The AMA and their allies in Congress depended on then-Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills to craft a limited, more fiscally responsible plan to head off a more gargantuan insertion of the…
“Neither the gravity and enormity … nor the unfortunate politicization of this health emergency should cause us to shy away from action.” I cut the specific issue from this sentence to make the point that as in practically all else, everything in health care is political. The sentence is ironic, bemoaning “politicization” even as it politicizes. I…
We live amidst a graying society. If the constant walk-in-tub ads and exhortations to buy gold haven’t convinced you, then this story will be a shock. The Washington Post has a story about a “catastrophic” age demographic mismatch impending in the state of Maine, and what it portends for the nation at large. This article makes a great…
Back in the Summer of ’99, I was excited and a little nervous to drive 5 hours down to Orlando to take my very first family medicine board exam, and I was really proud to get a passing score in the mail six weeks later. Seven years later, having left family medicine forever for the ER,…
Many years ago, and old timey surgeon told me a hilarious story. After his intern year, he did a tour in the Navy, where the duty was often easy and the docs could do practically anything they wanted. So lounging around the clinic one day, he go an interesting request: a strapping, tall 19 year old marine decided…
Medicaid has been busting state budgets for decades, and there is not end in sight. The authors of the Affordable Care Act actually bragged about putting more people on the welfare program, with some pols and wonks even claiming the expansion was an economic good. That is absurd on its face, as it still represents…