Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Cash Before Chemo

The Wall Street Journal ran a chilling Page One story yesterday: Cash Before Chemo: Hospitals Get Tough (link may require paid subscription). Here's a little video teaser:Once again, it's all too easy in the U.S. system to find yourself underinsured for a serious illness, and when you're underinsured, you might as well be uninsured.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

PBS Frontline: "Sick Around the World"

This Tuesday, "Frontline" takes a look at the U.S. health care system by comparing what we have against other countries who manage to provide better access and produce better outcomes at a lower cost. Here are three preview clips:Here's the press release on the program:FRONTLINE presentsSICK AROUND THE WORLDTuesday, April 15, 2008, at 9 P.M. ET on PBSFRONTLINE TRAVELS TO FIVE COUNTRIES IN SEARCH

Friday, April 11, 2008

Some basic health-reform lessons

Paul Krugman's excellent op-ed yesterday -- Health Care Horror Stories - New York Times -- ought to be required reading across the country. There is plenty to debate about how to fix our health care system, and he's made it clear in past columns that he favors Hillary's universal-coverage-now over Obama's phased-in plan. And there is still debate (here and here) about whether the opening story in

Monday, April 7, 2008

More medical records abuses

It seems that UCLA Medical Center had a serial HIPAA violator on its payroll (until he or she was fired last year for checking out Britney Spears' medical record). See: More UCLA records abuses - Los Angeles Times. We knew this was wrong even before HIPAA, didn't we?