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Note to critics of the public plan option for health insurance: This debate is over. You lost. In 2007, more than 45 percent of all medical costs in the U.S. were paid by government, vastly more than the one-third funded by private insurance.   
Many Americans already have access to public coverage. There is Medicare for [...]

By Matthew Holt Now before I explain why I say the Democrats are girlie-men, let me say three quick things. 1. I am not a supporter of Medicare-for-all, or Canadian style, single-payer (or anything primarily based on fee-for-service payment) although…

In a May 15 Health Affairs Blog post, Jeff Goldsmith argues against creating a new Medicare-like public health insurance plan to compete with private plans. As part of his argument, Goldsmith asserts that Medicare has done a worse job of controlling costs than private insurers have done.
Dr. Goldsmith’s bases this assertion on a recent paper [...]

Is it ever ok for a hospitalist to be the primary physician in post-op cases?
The answer is no, but as The Happy Hospitalist reports, it’s happening in some cases.
He details an instance where a hospitalist program is being asked by an orthopedic surgeon to provide care for his post-op cases, with the surgeon only coming [...]

President Obama is trying to put some numbers on his argument that spending a lot of money on health reform in the short run will lead to savings over the long haul.
A report out from the president’s economic advisers today makes the “economic case for health reform,” as the advisers put it.
Say, for instance, we [...]

Editor’s Note: The post below by Harold Luft is an abridged version of a longer White Paper. The full White Paper and additional information about Dr. Luft’s work are also available.
The Current Options Under Discussion
There is substantial debate among Democrats about whether a public-plan option is a critical component of health reform; Republicans seem unified in opposing the idea. The “public plan” proposals [...]

Would-be health reformers love to point out the wide variations in care between hospitals in different U.S. regions — variations that lead hospitals in some parts of the country to charge Medicare far more than hospitals in other places, even when they aren’t necessarily delivering higher-quality care.
A study out today in Health Affairs adds weight [...]

Medicare’s Part D drug benefit is going to cost taxpayers a lot of money. A really, really lot of money.
You can find the story deep in the bowels of the Medicare Trustees report that was released earlier this week. It is a nice little case study of how a well-intentioned government program can add tens [...]

The trustees of Social Security and Medicare put out their annual report this week on the financial status of the two government programs. Medicare will be in the red this year, paying out more in benefits than it receives in tax revenue. (All Americans pay a 2.9% Medicare tax on their wages, half remitted by [...]

Genetic testing for patients getting the blood-thinner warfarin gained credibility when the FDA said a couple of years back that patients with variations in two genes “may need lower warfarin doses than people without these variations.”
It was a big deal, we noted at the time, because warfarin, while very effective, can cause excess bleeding, [...]