Anyone who has read my blog over the years knows this is a subject I come back to again and again: the overuse of screening and diagnostic tests.
It’s a problem in our healthcare system for a couple of reasons.
First, the majority of healthcare providers are paid based on volume. In other words, the more patients they see, the more tests they run, the … read on
I watched this on my local news the other night: Runaway drug price hikes squeeze Washington’s budget.
Our state is one that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), so I knew we were spending a lot. But I had no idea now much. Through the first 9 months of 2016, my state has spent $1.1 billion on prescription drugs.
Not total medical care. … read on
How will healthcare change under a new president and political party?
That’s a question I can’t answer. As I wrote in my last post, both candidates had multiple-point plans to tweak/improve/repeal/replace the Affordable Care Act, aka the ACA or Obamacare.
But I don’t know what will change or when.
What I know for sure is that for 2017 my … read on
I started this blog four years ago, the day after President Obama won the general election. I needed an instrument to give voice to my frustrations and fears about the direction of our country’s health and healthcare policy.
I just re-read what I wrote back then:
… read onSo, the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare, as it’s commonly known), having survived its precipitous birth and a few close-calls with death, is
Wow. Talk about timing.
I just posted a few weeks ago about my dread of renewing my EpiPen prescription because of its cost—over $700 without insurance, and still over $600 with my insurance!
It seems other healthcare advocates, the media, Congress and even the presidential nominees are at last realizing how insane it is to charge that much for literally a few cents worth of epinephrine.
EpiPens are not even … read on
Prevnar 13: As seen on TVI was watching TV the other evening and, as usual, was forced to sit through multiple back-to-back prescription drug commercials.
One that caught my attention was for Prevnar 13, which is one of the pneumonia vaccines. (13 because it protects against 13 strains of streptococcus pneumonia.)
The commercial stated Prevnar 13 was for adults aged 50 and older.
That statement’s true, but needs … read on
Healthcare Not Fair is a satirical YouTube video series created by a real-life physician, Dr. Waqas Khan, to highlight problems within our broken healthcare system.
Their latest video takes a stab at electronic health records, EHR—or, as they call it, Electronic Hell Records!
Other videos by Healthcare Not Fair:
I just saw my primary care physician a few … read on
“Insufficient evidence”Many years ago I had a primary care doctor who used to perform a total body skin examination (TBSE) on me every year as part of my annual exam.
Of course, those all-inclusive physicals are a thing of the past. I haven’t had a physician perform a TBSE for a long time.
I often wondered about that. A TBSE seems like a relatively easy and harmless way to … read on
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and the online news site Vox recently sought to open Americans’ eyes as to how much more we pay for healthcare compared to other countries.
America’s healthcare prices are out of control. These 11 charts prove it.
I can’t copy their charts, but basically they are bar graphs. The bar that shows how much patients in the US pay for similar … read on
Does anyone’s income go up as fast as their health insurance premium? I wish.
11.6%. That’s how much more my current health insurance provider wants to charge for my bronze high-deductible health plan in 2017.
And although 11.6% seems like a lot to me, another company in my state is requesting a 19.9% average increase on all its plans, with a 28% increase on its gold … read on