Greg Mankiw (link) and David Leonhardt (link) have opened a debate on whether govenrment policymakers should levy a tax on soda and other soft drinks as an attempt to reverse the growing trend of obesity among the U.S. population. The idea of taxing soda has become popular as governments around the world have recorded high [...]

A few years ago, Arnold Kling, an economics professor at George Mason University, presented an interesting description of the type of health care system that Congress is planning to impose on all Americans. With Medicare’s unfunded liabilities in the multiple tens of trillions of dollars, it is like the Titanic sailing full speed ahead [...]

To quote Nancy Reagan, “just say no”.
Specifically, just say no to this:
[U]nder my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance — just as most states require you to carry auto insurance. Likewise — likewise, businesses will be required to either offer their workers health care, or chip in to help cover the [...]

Efforts to fix our health insurance system have found no found shortage of critical flaws in the “market”. I have yet to hear a coherent argument for the continued existence of private health insurance. Health care differs in three critical ways from traditional markets. Taken together I doubt that it is [...]

If you are at the age where you qualify for Medicare, then you undoubtedly understand how difficult it may be to manage your medications and prescriptions. The government’s Medicare program is a terribly complicated thing comprised of four parts – A, B, C, and D. Medicare Part A is for hospital care. Medicare Part B [...]

The theme of my last several posts has been the profit motive inherent in the medical system. Many parties appear to be responsible for this including industry and the physician’s lobby. I submit that the most responsible party is the consumer. The consumer is the one who demands the most advanced procedure, the best medicine, [...]

Former nurse and retired attorney S.J. Robinson, author of The Price of Death, has practiced law dealing with medical malpractice and insurance companies over the last 30 years. Her book focuses on issues such as health insurance reform, oversight for prescription drug production, and the growing power of healthcare conglomerates. For more information about Robinson [...]

I previously wrote about the EOB and how insurance companies try their many tricks to decrease reimbursement to physicians. Most physicians do not fight back. Some do. Medical Economics has highlighted the plight of one physician who has been fighting back. Their story is about a Chicago ENT surgeon who brought a lawsuit against an [...]

I previously posted about insurance companies and the EOB. I’ve been thinking more and more about this issue and have come to the conclusion that physicians must band together and file class action lawsuits against insurance companies in order to collect the reimbursements that they legally deserve. If you take a closer look at the [...]

In the medical industry, there is a dirty word called “bundling.” Bundling is the combining of multiple procedure codes into a general substitution code that ignores procedure code modifiers. Essentially, it is one of the ways insurance companies figure out how to pay doctors less. Here is an example of how the mechanics of reimbursement [...]