Category Archives: Politics

The ESRD Program and Single Payer Medicine

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st July 2019

Tweet In 1972 the nephrology community convinced congress to pay for the treatment of patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD). Thus, the federal government assumed fiscal responsibility for chronic dialysis and kidney transplantation. We sold the program by telling congress that it would save lives (true) and that it would not be very expensive…


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From Tolerance to Equality – Book Review

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th June 2019

Tweet Subtitled How Elites Brought America to Same-Sex Marriage, this book by Darel E Paul examines the phenomenon of same sex marriage, and a lot more. Paul is Professor of Political Science at Williams College – my alma mater and that of my two kids; accordingly I know a lot about its collective attitude. For…


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Cats Can’t Count and Only Centenarians Should Vote

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th May 2019

Tweet Cats, like many other species, can’t count. Our feline acquaintances have come up with an interesting work-around to deal with their deficient numeracy. When a mother cat decides, for whatever reason, to move her kittens she takes one by the scruff of the neck to its new location. Since she can’t count she doesn’t…


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Some Things Speak for Themselves

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd April 2019

Tweet Medicare to go broke three years earlier than expected, trustees say. Bernie Sanders Unveils ‘Medicare for All’ Bill.


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Dumber Than a Broom Handle

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th February 2019

Tweet A state similar to the instrument in the title is often the condition of  prominent people who offer pronouncements about issues not related to their expertise.  Typically, these proclamations concern politics, economics, and/or science and technology. Athletes and actors are obviously entitled to their opinions. Because they are prominent, their opinions get disseminated and…


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APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men or Why Can’t a Boy be More Like a Girl?

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd January 2019

Tweet The American Psychological  Association released its guidelines for psychological practice with boys and men in August of 2018. It seems to have taken a while for these guidelines to trickle down to the lay press. Since the document (it’s below this piece) is more of a political statement than a therapeutic one it’s had the…


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Not in Our Stars

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th August 2018

Tweet …history;which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. Edward Gibbon In a vein similar to Gibbon, Mark Twain allowed that the worst that could be said about anyone was that he was human. Prior to Twain, but after Gibbon, James Madison declared that no laws would…


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Medical Rationing in the UK

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th October 2017

Tweet A sizable, but likely still a minority, of the population seems to think that the federal government should have sole responsibility for the funding and delivery of medical care in the US – ie, a single payer system. Many, if not, most people make up their minds about the provision of both medical care…


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The Opioid Epidemic

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th June 2017

Tweet There seems to be no end of mischief that the government can do when it plunges into the quicksand of American medicine. Let’s consider the opioid epidemic. It appears that deaths from opioid overdose have sharply increased in this country.  Let’s also grant that this surge in deaths is exactly the way it’s portrayed…


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The Paris Climate Accord and Reasoned Debate

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd June 2017

Tweet                                                                      The center cannot hold…                                …


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