More than 50 million Americans struggle with arthritis: Three in 10 of them find that stooping, bending, or kneeling can be “very difficult.” One in five can’t or find it tough to walk three blocks, or to push or pull large objects. Grown-ups with arthritis are more than twice as likely to report fall injuries. ….
Continue ReadingArchives for March 2017
Public health, preventive care programs may take billion-dollar hit
When it comes to the nation’s health, the Trump Administration and the GOP-dominated Congress seem determined to prove they know how to do penny-wise and pound-foolish. They’re amply demonstrating this with proposed slashes in the nation’s basic budget for public health. They’re calling for a $1 billion cut for the Centers for Disease Control and….
Continue ReadingTrumpcare’s hit on the poor also would steal benefits from the middle-class elderly
Republicans have long fumed about the federal government’s role in health care, ever since Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor were both passed in 1965. Now, though, we’re at a crossroads, where a frontal assault on Medicaid could cause big damage to both programs. The temptation for too many Americans, as I’ve….
Continue ReadingReversing Robin Hood, Trumpcare would take from the poor, give to the rich
The president and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill already have rammed through two U.S. House committees a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. But to paraphrase a best-seller’s title, those who will be affected by the American Health Care Act, the AHCA, are from Earth, while the Republicans who….
Continue ReadingDoctors urged to better inform patients on the pros and cons of their care
Modern medicine has become so complex, bureaucratic, and forbidding that it’s little wonder that patients—already ailing—don’t grasp the risks and consequences of treatments they prescribe. Overwhelmed patients also don’t demand that doctors fully brief them. And shame on physicians for failing to help patients more in this critical area of caregiving, two doctors have written….
Continue ReadingEvidence mounts of terrible toll of preventable medical error
Although hospitals continue to try to shrug it off, the damning evidence is building that far more Americans die of preventable causes in their care than previously thought, and “approximately 200,000” such deaths each year in the United States is “not unreasonable” as an estimate. Those are the top-line findings from a team of doctors….
Continue ReadingHowlers can’t distract voters from GOP’s awful ACA repeal/replace plans
Republican leaders just can’t seem to help themselves. As they flounder in their assault on the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, they have moved from the inaccurate and counter-factual, beyond partisan buzzwords and talking points, and into a territory where they keep uncorking one howler after another about American health care and the ACA. President….
Continue ReadingGOP campaigning to strip patients of key legal protections
We all know how con artists work the streets. One might bump into you in a train or in a crosswalk, while the other grabs your wallet. Or one might smile and chat with a mom at a playground, while her partner nabs the purse. Patients and consumers may want to watch carefully for the congressional….
Continue ReadingNon-Partisan Videos about What’s Really Going on with High Care Costs in the U.S.
Thanks to a tip from a finance wizard who helps me with pension savings, I’ve come across some entertaining and instructive videos about our American health care system. What’s up with the high costs? Do we get value for spending far more than any other civilized country? How could we do better? Here’s one video….
Continue ReadingCan improved design help costly hospitals better prevent patient harms?
When a giant institution like MedStar Georgetown University Hospital announces it will spend more than a half-billion dollars to improve, rebuild, and expand its facilities, few of us blink. That’s because we know that hospitals, in general, are “among the most expensive facilities to build, with complex infrastructures, technologies, regulations and safety codes,” observes Druv….
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