Is the Baucus plan, the one that manages the improbable feat of making the developed world's most expensive, least effective health care system even worse, indeed the only one with a prayer of passage?
ALS has been described as one of the most expensive illnesses because of how debilitating it is. In Eric's case, the cost of the caretakers is not covered by any insurance due to the specialized care required.
If the health care debate seems like a hopeless morass, it's largely because moneyed interests want it to look that way. Matt Taibbi reminds us that the most fundamental issue is simple: Who pays, and how?
There was much to like in President Obama's health care reform speech to a joint session of Congress. But we need to remember that medical insurance reform of any kind is doomed without medical content reform.
Whose plan gets my nod, for bipartisan reality and feasibility, to save and improve our unique, innovative American health care system and not saddle our country with unsustainable debt? I vote for Senator Max Baucus.
While there has been tremendous debate over access and payment, there has been less focus on the content of health care. Without a change in that content, we will never have a sustainable system.
There is a growing trend to promote diseases to fit existing drugs. As a culture, we should be suspicious whenever we hear of a new "disease," and ask whether it may just be a marketing ploy.
We are a fear-driven culture. There is a large segment of the population that, no matter how well you document it, will not let a good fact get in the way of their fears about health care reform.
Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist. And doctors are human beings.
Given that we all want health and spend trillions to "care" for it, it's sobering how little thought we give to the true meaning of the term.
I stood outside of a town hall meeting the other day to interview people who had participated and recorded this really amazing interview with one of the more influential speakers on health care reform.
Sally Field is a talented actor. But what qualifies her to promote Boniva, an osteoporosis drug that is of limited benefit, has worrisome side effects, and for which there are natural alternatives that merit careful consideration?
While they land on either side of the fence on the issue, these are some of the most interesting players in the unfolding health care reform drama.
Unlike those Congresspeople in Part IV, these Representatives take modest $10,000 to $25,000 from health-care-related special interests. This and the ...
In this chapter, we meet politicians who take is between $25,000 and $50,000 of special interest money per official from a source with a health care f...
Wrangling Cash Cows In the final days before a vote on health care reform it is important to know who all of the players are in the debate. As I po...
The majority of the United States Congress takes money from one or more special interests weighing in heavily on the health care reform bill. In Part ...
Mr. Buffett, you're not in the health insurance market, but this might be the opportunity to bring your successful Berkshire companies to the table, to help solve the major issue of our time.
My plan is to mandate that the 159 urban medical schools in the U.S. -- remembering that "school" is in their name -- be required to serve the population within their shadows.
Progressives have badly underestimated the strength and resilience of their opposition. Republicans and conservatives retain the ability to stop the drive forward -- like scabs on a union workplace strike.
The town halls make for good television, but they're a side-show to the main event. The real story should be about the back room deals reportedly being negotiated with the Obama administration.
