Category Archives: economics
Ford, the UAW, and the Public Option
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd November 2009If you want any further proof that government run health insurance will run private health insurance into the ground look at Ford and the United Auto Workers. The union which along with the federal government owns GM and Chrysler has refused to adjust its contract with Ford to match that which it has with the…
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House Healthcare Bill
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th October 2009Below is the complete text of the House Healthcare Bill – all 1990 pages. I haven’t read it but a quick search finds “tax” in it about 275 times. I wonder if anyone has read it. House HCR bill
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New Doctors Poll
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th September 2009There’s been some back and forth in the comments section of Medicare’s Overhead about what doctors think of the healthcare reforms bills now before congress. It started when I said that I didn’t think many practicing physicians favored any of these proposals. A new poll commissioned by Investors Business Daily says that two thirds of…
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Investing For the Long Term
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd September 2009Just think about this for a while. In 1969 the Dow-Jones Industrial average was a little shy of 1000. The price of an ounce of gold was about $41 an ounce. Today the Dow is a little more than 9300. Gold closed today at a little more than $990 an ounce. In 40 years the…
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Medical Care as a Right
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th August 2009If you asked a large randomly selected group of Americans whether medical care was a right many, perhaps most, would say yes. Analyze what such a right entails. If Mr Smith has a right to medical care but can’t afford to pay for it then Mr Green must. It’s a zero sum game. Smith consumes…
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Healthcare Abroad and at Home
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th August 2009The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about healthcare in France. It details the financial difficulties that France’s national healthcare plan is experiencing. The data on this graph need a little explaining. It presents the percentage change in medical (not health as it states) cost in four countries. To accurately analyze the data you…
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Put Them Out to Die
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd August 2009Some American Indian tribes are said to have put very old members of their tribe out in the cold to die when they had reached the point where they could no longer contribute anything productive to the group. The Democrats in the Senate apparently share this approach. Mike Enzi (R, Wyo) introduced an amendment that…
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Effectiveness and Cost
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th June 2009There’s a growing sentiment that a solution to out of control medical costs might be to limit reimbursement of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures that are deemed to be of little or no effectiveness. I’ve written earlier that this is rationing of medical care in disguise. But let’s look at his issue in a little more…
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The Rashomon Approach to Medicare
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th June 2009The May 28 number of the New England Journal of Medicine published three perspective pieces which show how hard it is to discuss anything to do with federal funding of medical care. The authors, all PhDs, were invited to write these articles presumably because they know a lot about the subject. I’ve already stated my…
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Reality Strikes
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th May 2009The May 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine contains an article, Picking the Right Poison — Options for Funding Health Care Reform, that sets a new tone for the journal. It looks at health care reform through a clear lens. Funding universal health care is going to cost a lot of money. Be…
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