Even George Clooney can’t save what some in the press have nicknamed “The Republican E. R. Plan.” (This post is a follow-up to one I wrote yesterday about McCain’s top health care advisor, John Goodman, who thinks that access to the ER is the same thing as having health insurance.)
For someone with a PhD in economics, you would think that Goodman realizes that the emergency department is the most expensive way to access health care in this country. Moreover, treatment for a disease is almost always more expensive at later stages, and is definitely more expensive than preventing the disease …read more

In an interview yesterday, McCain’s top health care advisor, John Goodman (he also calls himself “The Father of Health Savings Accounts” — something I wouldn’t brag about) said that the term “uninsured” is a misnomer because Americans can access health care through the emergency room.
As an expert in cancer care and how that care is delivered to patients, I can categorically say that access to an emergency room is not the same as “access to health care.” If you’re a cancer patient, what you need is access to expensive pharmaceuticals, experienced physicians, and expert oncology nurses who will actually hook …read more

There’s buzz on the “internets” that Hillary might find a place as a health care czar in the Obama administration if Barack is successful with his quest. That position would likely not be a cabinet post, but would be similar to the role she had in her husband’s administration, when she was going to lead the charge in health care reform. However, with the enemies she made during that time, maybe she wouldn’t be the best individual to put Obama’s health care plan into action.
She mentioned health care 7 times in her speech at the Democratic National Convention — the …read more

News outlets are reporting that actress Christina Applegate has chosen to have a double mastectomy for breast cancer. She chose to do so after undergoing lumpectomies in the affected breast to remove early-stage cancer from one breast and after learning that she is at higher risk for breast cancer due to a mutation in a breast cancer gene, BRCA-1. However, for many early-stage breast cancer patients, mastectomy is not a recommended treatment, and it may not increase survival rates in the long term.
The article states that:
 Growing numbers of women are opting for double mastectomies, even when they have cancer only …read more

The current issue of Managed Care contains an interview with Dr. Barbara Starfield, director of the Johns Hopkins Primary Care Policy Center and firm believer in primary care. The interview highlights Dr. Starfield’s thoughts on the current state of primary care in the U.S., and she believes that the overuse and misuse of medical specialists is bad for the system, bad for the patient, and raises health care costs in the U.S. Some interesting points are made, and when asked what three things would turn the current state of the primary care around, Dr. Starfield responded with,

a published …read more

I had my issues with Tim Russert, but I always enjoyed hearing what he had to say. He was never afraid to ask the tough questions, questions about a whole range of topics that included health care. On this Father’s Day, I post a video of images of Tim Russert and his father and son with narrative from his audio book version of Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life.
in memory…
Source:
Video: msnbc.com