Deane Waldman

Whether you are fixated on newspapers, addicted to radio, or mesmerized by TV, you get the same clear, unambiguous message: what we want healthcare to do is to cut costs.

• "Medicare Demos [Demonstration Projects] Fall Short On Savings"
• "Cutting Costs Doesn't Cut Costs"
• "To Reduce...

As the Supreme Court takes up the case of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it is appropriate for me as a doctor to tell them that patient, Healthcare, has a life-threatening parasitic infestation with tapeworms. These are those ugly, evil-looking worms with teeth as in science fiction classic Dune, just...

A recent online article claimed, "Competition hasn't worked in health care." With respect, the author is completely off base. Real, effective competition has never been tried in health care.

Suppose that American football competed the way that American health care "competes." What would it look like? What...

Everyone agrees that healthcare spending is out of control and the cost spiral is unsustainable. The cure for this sickness seems, however, elusive.

Recently online, the ten reasons for U.S. healthcare spending were delineated. Some may seem too vague or theoretical -- like "action without evidence" --...

There is great pressure to pass a healthcare Bill, even one as flawed as HR 3962. The new Administration has expended great political capital to do so. The public was promised healthcare reform and expects it. Everyone 'knows' how sick healthcare is in the...

Everyone knows that obesity is a major health problem in the USA. One estimate suggests that 30% of health care costs (actually the cost of sickness care) can be attributed to the consequences of obesity.

Obesity clearly reduces productivity. Thus from the national commercial...

In ancient times, if the messenger brought the King bad news, the King might kill him. But at least the King always read the message first! Today, we don't bother. If the messenger has a foul appearance, that unfortunate is killed without even a...

Neither the President nor any member of Congress will ever say it, not if they want to get re-elected. I hold no elected office and as a doctor I am obligated to tell the patient the bitter truth. Health care is not a...

People from Nancy Pelosi to daily bloggers are screaming "MediCare-for-All" as the answer to our health care crisis. Is MediCare the solution for us all? The answer is clear: no.

Unlike MediCaid, MediCare was never intended as an entitlement. MediCare was supposed to be self-sustaining: people would pay...

Healthcare and education are so similar that we have labeled them "Twins in Trouble" in the journal Total Quality Management. Each is critically important to us as individuals and as a nation. In each, the outcomes occur years-to-decades in the future after actions we...

Everyone knows (except Washington) that you cannot cure a sick anything -- patient or system - without a correct diagnosis. What is the diagnosis for sick, "broken" healthcare?

Washington apparently thinks that there is not enough money in the system because the Bill they are discussing will add $1...

Is there such a thing as a right without a responsibility? Our most fundamental rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" come - of necessity - with the responsibility not to abridge someone else's rights to life liberty, and the pursuit of...

I am just writing what everyone knows: the Emperor has no clothes. What is touted as health care reform isn't (going to reform health care.)

Start with basics. As enunciated by the President, health care expenditures are dragging us down. As individuals, the...

Like you, I am concerned that the health care reform proposed will not fix health care. I tried to attend our local town hall meeting on health care but could not get in. I had prepared some questions in advance that I believe...

Imagine that your doctor says the following. What should you do?

You tell me you have trouble breathing, chest pain and swollen ankles. I will do expensive tests but I already know what is causing this. The root cause is a "broken" heart muscle - you need a new heart....

Time for another reality check on health care reform (so-called). Previously, people wrote that "Anything is better than what we have now." We now know that is not true. Now people write, ObamaCare "is not perfect but at least it's a start." Regretfully,...

Dear Mr. President:
There are 'signs' everywhere: from violent town hall meetings to the passionate print media and fiery blogs. Your people are angry and as Spider Robinson wisely quipped, "Anger is always fear in disguise." The people are afraid ... of your...

Complexity is considered bad in most business activities because it reduces efficiency and therefore costs money. In health care it is worse because it also kills. Anything done to health care that increases complexity will waste money and lose lives.

Operations experts in successful businesses such as Toyota,...

U.S. health care is sick. Practicing good medicine on this critically ill system starts with empathy but none of the other, more voluble emotions currently on display like anger, name-calling and blaming. Good medicine requires objective evaluation of evidence, not depending solely on logic.

We have heard the pros and cons about ObamaCare or AAHCA (America's Affordable Health Choices Act) from both sides of the aisle but not from the general population. What do you think about Washington's plans to fix healthcare?

I would like to learn...