Healthcare
I’d already added the Patients First Coalition to the list of links at left, but looking at their “Fast Facts on Why Rhode Island Needs Medical Liability Reform,” I thought the following particularly noteworthy: 48% of physicians planning to leave Rhode Island within the next three years to practice elsewhere cite Rhode Island’s high malpractice…
I was intrigued by an Op-Ed in today’s Providence Journal by Teresa Heinz (she dropped the Kerry!) and Jeffrey R. Lewis (“Extend Ohio drug plan across U.S“) that trumpeted the “success” of Ohio’s just-implemented BestRX plan. With a critical eye, one derived from a predisposition to mistrust our almost-First Lady, I searched for corroborating evidence…
The idea, which Marc noted in the previous post, that “Europeans and Canadians are able to get quality drugs at lower prices only because Americans pay free-market prices that fuel research and development” is one that I’ve touched on before. Michelle Malkin had made the point that the price negotiation practices of the Veterans Administration…
As I noted at the time on Dust in the Light, the Providence Journal‘s editorial page recently made an astonishingly forward-looking suggestion: The problem of job quality is complex, involving trade, education and other issues. But we hope that political leaders will take an especially close look at the health-care factor. Our employment-based health-insurance system…
Froma Harrop’s latest jeremiad against the Bush Administration and pharmaceutical companies combined with the news that Michael Moore’s next target for a “documentary” is the pharmaceutical industry has finally prompted me to shake myself of my “healthcare debate” ennui. (Justin has admitted to the same malady in the past). Harrop’s recitiation of an oft-repeated theme…
The Projo editorial board’s comments on recent healthcare happenings in the state mention a strategy — perhaps a necessity — with much broader application: We are unmoved by Blue Cross’s complaint that United is “an out-of-state for-profit company.” In all-too-cozy Rhode Island, being out-of-state can be an advantage, avoiding as it does the local cronyism…
I’ve admitted before that I find healthcare to be an eye-glazing issue — especially in Rhode Island. Sometimes it seems reasonable to wonder whether that’s an effect that the industry actively encourages. As William Gamble’s analysis suggests (to my mind, anyway), Blue Cross of Rhode Island could hardly have been better designed for corruption if…
Writing in the Providence Journal, Emily Harding of the Rhode Island Association of Health Underwriters lays out the general argument for some suggestions for improving the healthcare near-crisis in the state: What made [national health insurance carriers] leave the state had nothing to do with the inability to compete with Blue Cross (which they had…
