Ira R. Allen's blog
Can people who do not have employer-based health insurance buy their own policy in the free market at a reasonable price? Two health experts named Karen disagree, but who is right doesn't matter until a free market exists.
When it is all right for government to step in and require vaccinations against communicable, deadly diseases? The answer may depend on where you live -- Nigeria or Michigan.
Children are the healthiest component of the U.S. population, and if an infant makes it past one year of age, the single greatest cause of death is not disease but "unintentional injury."
When John Edwards talked so movingly about disparities between the "Two Americas" when he ran for vice president in 2004, it turns out he underestimated the divisions.
In a bizarre rant against evidence-based medicine, former NIH Director Bernadine Healy seems to forget she was once its pre-eminent sponsor.
The 9/11 heroes are suffering a disproportionate amount of respiratory illness, yet 40 percent are uninsured. They will get some help from government, but what about the uninsured everyday heroes who drive cabs, wait tables, clean your house and raise your children?
Possibly the only person in the Bush Administration who understands the economics of health care has just announced his resignation. At least Mark McClellan will take a job with a conservative think tank rather than go to work, like his predecessork, directly for the drug industry he once regulated.
First, they cut your taxes. Then, they risk your life.
Getting old may be a pain, but for most people it sure beats the alternative. It is also getting much more expensive to live longer.
Interesting Census figures today -- income is up, poverty hasn't changed, health insurance rates are down. Connect the dots.
Poor doctors. The claim they have to nickel and dime their patients -- literally to death, sometimes -- to be able to keep up their Jaguar payments. Maybe they could rip people off by opening inner-city grocery stores, instead. Or maybe we can change the health system at the polls, where small changes can lead to big-dollar reforms.
Since the government pays directly for 40 percent of the nation's health care through Medicare, Medicaid, the VA and a share of the civil service health plan, cutting costs is a reasonable goal. As is letting the consumer know what things actually cost. But giving consumers price information does not empower them as much as actually giving them health information.
Embargoed journal articles periodically come under fire for corrupting the free flow of information. But the system is really no different than other "news" the public receives.
Big tobacco wins again as an angry federal judge denounces the industry in terms usually reserved for pedophiles and mass murders but can't impose any real penalties.
We all know to stockpile a three-day supply of food, water and batteries in case of a natural or terrorism disaster. But people don't. And who is to say whether they are indifferent or just aware of the low risk?
