The Health Care Blog

Interview: TR Reid on healthcare reform around the world

By Matthew Holt TR Reid is a former foreign correspondent with the Washington Post. He spent two years (partly funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation) looking at health care systems across the world and has been featured heavily in many...
September 8, 2009 in International, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (8)

Donald Light sticks it to PhRMA and Tauzin, again

By Matthew Holt Over the years PhRMA must be getting pretty sick of Univ of Medicine and Denistry of New Jersey Professor Donald Light. He’s made a cottage industry of pissing on the commonly-trumpeted propaganda that only American drug research...
August 26, 2009 in International, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sunday reading-Jon Cohn on French & Dutch health care

By Matthew Holt Jon Cohn has a long article in the Boston Globe about how the French and Dutch get health care about right at half the American cost with none of that unpleasant Canadian or Britishness that FoxNews loves...
July 5, 2009 in International, Matthew Holt, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (20)

Canadians? Not as good as us!

By Matthew Holt Several of my friends in the blogosphere are getting very excited because eHealth Ontario has pissed away a few million dollars and the now fired CEO got more bonus than was seemly. So she gave Accenture and...
June 10, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, International, Technology | Permalink | Comments (5)

As Medical Tourism Grows, Hold On We're In For a Wild Ride

By Bob Wachter Until now, medical tourism has been a curiosity, iconic “Wow, Look How Flat the World Is Becoming,” fodder for stories on 60 Minutes. But as health insurers and employers get into the act, get ready for some...
January 17, 2009 in Bob Wachter, Health Plans, International, Physicians, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (25)

Global 2.0: A lesson from Indian pharmacies

By Sarah Arnquist MedPlus Pharmacies is arguably one of India's fastest growing health companies. Since its launch in 2006, the retail pharmacy chain has opened 500 stores in several Indian cities and serves roughly 25,000 customers daily. In a space...
September 6, 2008 in International, pharmaceuticals, Sarah Arnquist | Permalink | Comments (4)

NICE job. Cost-effectiveness in the UK

By Matthew Holt Yesterday I went to a high powered lunch put on by HealthTech, with a high powered crowd attending (including the head of the California Dept of Managed Health Care, lots of Kaiser Permanente people, Arnie Milstein from...
August 5, 2008 in International, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality | Permalink | Comments (11)

Commonwealth puts the boot in, again

By Matthew Holt Veteran THCB readers shouldn’t need too much reminding about this, so I'll spare you the blow by blow documented here over the years. Here's the bottom line. Any time you do a trans-national study on health care,...
July 17, 2008 in International, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (8)

Dispatch from India: Private sector responding to new health care consumers

By Jay Srinivasan Editor's note: The current issue of Health Affairs released next week focuses on health care in India and China. As with most parameters within the Indian economy these days, the health care industry is huge but that...
July 1, 2008 in Consumers, International | Permalink | Comments (3)

Drug advertisements annoying and possibly misleading

By Sean Neill Sean Neill is a South African-born, British-trained anesthesiologist, who recently relocated to Midwestern USA. He blogs regularly at OnMedica about his cross-cultural experience, frequently pointing out oddities of American health care. Watching television in America takes some...
June 30, 2008 in Consumers, International, Pharma, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (8)

Going Dutch for health reform ideas

By Maggie Mahar & Niko Karvounis Maggie Mahar is an award winning journalist and author. A frequent contributor to THCB, her work has appeared in the New York Times, Barron's and Institutional Investor. She is the author of Money-Driven Medicine:...
June 22, 2008 in Economics, International, Maggie Mahar, Marketplace, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (12)

The Talking Cure: moving patients to the center of care

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn The relationship between patients and doctors is fundamentally changing. Transparency in medical records, patients' accessibility to health information online, and online social media driving patient-to-patient conversations are some forces at the base of the future of health...
June 17, 2008 in International, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Personalized Medicine | Permalink | Comments (5)

Real transparency in a socialist nirvana? UK releases hospital death rates

By Michael Millenson In yet more evidence that the transparency revolution is worldwide and not merely a product of American capitalism, comes news that in the UK death rates for specific types of surgery at NHS hospitals are to be...
May 30, 2008 in Health 2.0, International, Quality | Permalink | Comments (1)

INTERNATIONAL: Rational talk about Canadian Health Care

I'm very happy to relate that one of the best pieces ever by me on THCB, Oh Canada, (written when THCB was just finding its feet in 2003) is still as relevant as ever. There are still inordinate amounts of...
February 7, 2008 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (14)

INTERNATIONAL: Kidneys stolen from kidnap victims

This made me feel ill: Kidney thefts shock India.
January 30, 2008 in International | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: The new health care system in the Netherlands

It would be great if we could get the US to a system of health insurers competing over the right things. With a universal individual mandate that worked, risk adjustment between insurers, and social solidarity mixed with market incentives --...
January 29, 2008 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (4)

INTL: Market invisible hand forces Canadian death rate numbers public!

In a valiant effort to stop Canadians storming the borders and leaving their home health care system bereft of their health care dollars, the Canadian government has yielded. It's made death rate numbers at Canadian hospitals public. The probably futile...
November 30, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (8)

INTERNATIONAL: Social cohesion in the UK includes aging rockers

protesting against hospital cuts
October 29, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (1)

INTERNATIONAL: SWF seeking Canadian M

A SWF, that's a sick white female, is looking for a husband with Canadian health coverage.
October 12, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: The Dutch--Better than the US at football, drug-laws and health care organization

The Netherlands is a small nation of only 16 million, and yet they have a record in International soccer that's better than many three times their size. laws about drugs and prostitution that reduce crime, violence and embody toleration, and...
September 7, 2007 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (4)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: John Cohn puts the boot in....nicely

I told John Cohn a while back that he was just too nice, and that he shouldn’t engage in the pointless argument with the free-marketeers about whether we treat cancer better or worse than the Europeans—especially as we do so...
July 30, 2007 in International, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (30)

QUALITY/INTERNATIONAL: A great check list and more about EBM

Humphrey Taylor from Harris mentioned to me earlier this year that one thing Americans don’t realize is how much other health care systems are changing—while ours seems stuck in 1987. One case in major point is the UK where serious...
July 25, 2007 in International, Quality | Permalink | Comments (5)

INTERNATIONAL: Ian Morrison vacationing at the taxpayer's expense

My old boss Ian Morrison has been in Australia studying the health care system. I'm sure this was a work visit for him with neither a bar nor a golf course in sight. He did though come back with a...
July 10, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (2)

INTERNATIONAL/QUALITY: Reggie will be having a fit

I’ve always been amused that the most cited example of the “focused factory” that Reggie Herzlinger perceives to be the answer to medical cost and quality problems is the Shouldice Institute in Canada. That’s right the country where it takes...
July 9, 2007 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (7)

INTERNATIONAL/POLICY: Good summary article

Nothing new for you wonks, but there’s a good summary article by Susan Brink in the LA Times today about the international comparison stuff. It’s called Care in need of a cure.
June 18, 2007 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (17)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: The best health care system in the world!

God Bless America. Zeke Emmanuel is a pretty prominent ethicist and with my former economics teacher/prof Vic Fuchs author of a not bad proposal for universal health care. He’s more famous as the least famous Emmanuel brother—the one who's not...
May 16, 2007 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (17)

INTERNATIONAL: Medical tourism--the Singaporean story

My interview with Dr Jason Yap who runs medical toursm in Singapore is up over at worldhealthcareblog.(Link is fixed now)
May 12, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (11)

PODCAST/TECH: Interview with Chris Hobson, Orion Health

Since John Irvine's taken over as the business lead for THCB, we now have a raft of new sponsors including CDW, Silverlink and now Orion Health. Apparently the marketing folks at Orion thought that it would be a good idea...
May 4, 2007 in International, Technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

INTERNATIONAL: Rationing American style

I don't approve of health care by anecdote, but there are plenty of loonies on the Canada bashing right who do. And some of them make movies to prove their point. I also think that taking individual stories out of...
April 26, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (10)

POLICY: Ezra Klein's The Health of Nations

Now I’ve met Ezra I can stop calling him the young punk. He has written another excellent review of health care in universal coverage nations, including socialized medicine in the heart of America for our allegedly most treasured citizens. It’s...
April 25, 2007 in International, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (13)

POLICY: Crazy Canadian-haters

I got a hysterical email the other day from someone asking my help in making a movie to castigate Canadian health care. Why? Well they're Scared Sicko.
April 16, 2007 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (4)

INTERNATIONAL: Hospitals, clinics rake in cash with unnecessary medical tests

It says so in the paper so it must be true. Where has John Wennberg turned his attention to now? VietNam
March 29, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: More boring pointless mush from the AEI

So the WSJ gives another know-nothing big oil-sponsored hack from AEI another forum to use the same tired defense of the US system in the Elizabeth Edwards case. Oh look! Cancer outcomes are worse here than in Europe therefore their...
March 27, 2007 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: Universal health care passed in (the) America(s)!

OK, so it's in Peru. But if they can, why can't we?
March 19, 2007 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (12)

TECH/INTERNATIONAL: Health 2.0 but Patients in charge

We talk alot about consumer driven health care, and Health2.0 companies allowing patients to rate doctors. Something not dissimilar is starting to happen in China, but with no technology involved. Fascinating stuff.
February 16, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (5)

INTERNATIONAL: Gaming Choose & Book?

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid that is not exactly known for its rational, pro-Blairite analysis says that UK Hospitals are cheating over patient choice and gaming the Choose and Book system.
February 13, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (0)

INTERNATIONAL: Having run ahead on primary care PCP, Brits copying Medicare on hospital P4P

The Brits have decided that in at least some regions their hospitals are going to try American style P4P Health bosses have announced a plan to reward hospitals for low death and infection rates and few readmissions. NHS North West...
February 12, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: A split in the libertarian right? (albeit a Canadian one)

Buried at the end of a rant about the evils of the Canadian system from our northern brethren’s version of Cato/PRI—the Fraser Institute—is their solution for what to do about it all. Canada should adopt a system like Switzerland's that...
February 5, 2007 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHYSICIANS/INTERNATIONAL: GPs making hay in the UK

My dad told me never to become a doctor. As I failed physics "O" Level and wandered off into social sciences that was probably sound counsel for me, but in general his advice may not have been correct. With the...
February 2, 2007 in International, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (1)

INTERNATIONAL: Japan's Health Minister engages mouth, brain not yet in gear

You've got to hope that this one was "lost in translation"! Japan's health minister described women as "birth-giving machines" in a speech on the falling birthrate, drawing criticism despite an immediate apology. "The number of women between the ages of...
January 29, 2007 in International | Permalink | Comments (1)

QUALITY/INTERNATIONAL: More confusing international comparisons

I don’t know much about medical care, but I do remember that in Lynn Payer’s Medicine and Culture the most amusing factoid was that German doctors put people whose blood pressure was too low on medication to raise it. Does...
January 24, 2007 in International, Quality | Permalink | Comments (0)

INTERNATIONAL/POLICY: Canadian health care must be better!

If I was David Gratzer or John Graham's alter egos I'd be using these two stories to good effect. The first one one proves that Canadians are getting healthier and living longer than before they had a universal single payer...
December 26, 2006 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (1)

OFF-TOPIC: Which side of the great divide is more intelligent and civilized?

Apparently Gywnny's dissing her heritage But the question remains: was Gwyneth Paltrow on to something when she noted (or didn’t) that “the British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans,” and that “people here don’t talk about work...
December 12, 2006 in International | Permalink | Comments (6)

INTERNATIONAL: This is why we have trial lawyers

Man changes sex, parents sue hospital A couple whose only son underwent a sex change operation has sued a hospital for compensation and to have the surgery reversed because their “family line” was broken, a Chinese newspaper reported. The Yancheng...
December 12, 2006 in International | Permalink | Comments (0)

INTERNATIONAL/POLICY: Compare and contrast the attitudes

Crowd Protests Health Care in China (in the New York Times) Some 2,000 people mobbed and ransacked a hospital in southwestern China on Friday in a dispute over medical fees and shoddy health care practices……essential medical care was denied the...
November 13, 2006 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

INTERNATIONAL: Canada has got its problems too!

Just to prove that a) I'm not biased one way or the other, and b) that everyone has problems. In Canada a new study says that a shortage of family doctors contributes to long wait times.
November 6, 2006 in International | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: Damn communists with endowments, again

So the Commonwealth Fund is at it again. Notice how “Commonwealth” has the same root as “Communist”? I thought you did. Why else would they come out with yet another study showing that compared to other parts of the world...
November 3, 2006 in International, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

INTERNATIONAL: Cuba exporting doctors

Here’s a long and interesting article on Cuban Medical Diplomacy. Essentially Castro has been exporting doctors all over the place, and now Chavez is using Venezuela's oil money to pay for it. I was reading along wondering why we hadn’t...
November 2, 2006 in International | Permalink | Comments (16)

INTERNATIONAL: Health care costs, and not just here!

I spent rather more than I’d like of my Thursday night writing a piece I promised ABCNews for their week-long series on the health care system that starts Sunday. As I was finishing up I saw this. It’s not exactly...
October 13, 2006 in International | Permalink | Comments (22)

INTERNATIONAL: More crass bureaucratic inhumanity in the UK's NHS

Just wait till Heritage/Manhattan/Cato find out about this!
October 11, 2006 in International | Permalink | Comments (1)