When I talk to a medical professional, I let them know a where I’m coming from and what I’m looking for. When you are a prepared and active participant in the conversation, the results are far more useful than what you get from just sitting and listening. If you want your doctors to treat you…
I am frustrated with our national leaders who seem more interested in blaming each other than solving the coronavirus problem. It’s time to consider actual solutions and invest in them. Start with this: the virus is not going away. It’s now expanding exponentially in Arizona, Texas, Florida, and southern California; ICU beds are filling up….
I’ve advised CEOs. I’ve stood by the bedside of loved ones and helped make health care decisions. In a lot of ways, it feels like the same thing. In both situations: The decisions are important and have long-lasting consequences. People must often make decisions when they are tired. Competing experts offer conflicting advice. It’s hard…
The Congressional Budget Office is in the crosshairs for its prediction that the republican health care bills will cause 22 million people to lose health insurance. Eight of the organization’s former leaders wrote a letter to defend it. Who’s right, the CBO’s critics or its defenders? Congress created the CBO in 1974 as an independent,…
Donald Trump tweeted “If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!” Is it good politics to repeal Obamacare now and replace it later? Let’s analyze using game theory. Here are the facts: Bills in the Senate are subject to…
Health care is complex. But Atul Gawande applies his intellect to make it clearer. His email about a research paper on the health effects of insurance is a tutorial on how to summarize effectively. In the New England Journal of Medicine, Atul Gawande and two colleagues published a 6-page survey paper with 54 footnotes on…
Instructions are tricky. You need to be clear and brief, write directly to the user, and most importantly, make sure that the instructions match reality. Based on my experience with health insurance, this a prescription that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts needs, stat. I had previously used the excellent Blue Cross Blue Shield plan from…
Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, announced a huge increase in the cost of his drug for a life-threatening disease. Then he backtracked. By analyzing his passive statements, you see exactly how a scoundrel evades responsibility. After acquiring the drug Daraprim, used to treat the sometimes deadly parasitic infection toxoplasmosis, Turing Pharmaceuticals hiked the price from $13.50 to…
Do you find the health care system in America baffling? Me too. But industries work the way they do for a reason. With help from independent health care analyst Skip Snow, I did my best to reveal the perverse logic of American health care. It all comes down to one thing: when the people who use a service…