The Health Care Blog

Op-Ed: Health Panels are a NICE Way of Improving Care and Controlling Costs

By ADRIAN BAKER One of the proposals for health care reform is to have a panel of medical experts oversee Medicare, in order to improve quality and reduce cost. But false accusations permeating the debate have scared people into thinking...
September 2, 2009 in NHS, Op-Ed, Reform | Permalink | Comments (23)

Op-Ed: A Practicing Doctor's Prescription for Health Care Reform

By JORDAN SHLAIN, MD Our national healthcare system needs a 'step-change', not incremental change. We are facing a vast and complex problem. Let's use it as an opportunity; rather than blaming our nation's health problems solely on corporations, providers, insurers,...
August 7, 2009 in Health Plans, Op-Ed, Rationing, Reform | Permalink

Op-Ed: Forward thinking health plans? Look for the guys with the white hats

By RICHARD NOFFSINGER The public noise about health care reform has painted the parties involved in broad brush strokes that tell consumers which in the fray are the good guys and bad guys. News reports have for so long vilified...
July 13, 2009 in Data Analytics, Electronic Medical Records, Health Plans, Op-Ed | Permalink | Comments (10)

Op-Ed: A Social Democrat Weighs in on a Government Health Plan

By DAVID HANSEN I was born into a Berkeley family of Social Democrats—my father studied Swedish economic policies—then I trained in social-democratic Economics in Scandinavia, before cutting my career teeth in a Norwegian Labor Party think tank. I thereby personify...
June 24, 2009 in Health Plans, Op-Ed | Permalink | Comments (23)

Op-Ed: Leave it to Darwin?

By ROGER COLLIER I’ve been reading some of the testimony on delivery system reforms from the House Ways and Means Committee meeting earlier this month, in particular the lengthy statements from MedPAC Chairman Glenn Hackbarth and Urban Institute Senior Fellow...
May 14, 2009 in Op-Ed | Permalink | Comments (16)

Beware the Bursting of the Health Care Bubble

By GEORGE LUNDBERG The good news is that if and when the American healthcare bubble bursts, some value will remain. The bad news is that the annual appropriate value could actually be only about 60% of the current expenditure. The...
May 12, 2009 in Op-Ed | Permalink | Comments (37)