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Another Obamacare Failure: It Wasn't a Job Killer!
According to many conservative pundits, Obamacare is a job killer. Five days before Obama signed the law, in fact, speaker John Boehner declared that the president was pushing “his job killing government takeover of healthcare that will hurt small businesses.” Years after the law was passed, critics continued trumpeting this theme, Ted Cruz calling Obamacare “the biggest job-killer in…
Your Doctor May Spend More Time with a Computer than with You
Shutterstock Medical appointments are getting shorter by the year. Sometimes it feels like doctors have no time to spend with their patients. What’s to blame for these brief clinical interactions? It could be the electronic health record, or EHR. Because of changes in how insurance companies and the government pay for medical care, doctors increasingly…
The Healthcare Efficiency Myth – What Really Happens When Doctors And Hospitals Join Forces
For much of the history of U.S. medical care, hospitals and physicians have existed as separate financial entities. Physicians in the U.S. have typically been self-employed, as solo or group practitioners and not as hospital employees. An internist like me might have admitting privileges to several local hospitals. When we admit patients to one of…
Half of Healthcare Spending: For 1/20th of the People
It is not unfair that we spend more on medical care for some people than others. After all, some people are sicker than others. If there’s anything unfair, it’s probably the uneven distribution of illness and disability. That said, the disparity in healthcare spending across people is pretty staggering. As this picture shows, courtesy of…
Medical Debt Demystified (What You Owe Isn't Necessarily What You Owe)
When Lorie Duff was pregnant with her third child, she did what all good moms are supposed to do. She went to the ObGyn clinic for prenatal care. But she fell behind on the clinic payments. She only made about $25,000 a year managing an auto parts store while her husband stayed home with their…
Good and Bad News about Physician Pay
I’ve got some good news for all of you: there’s no racial disparity in pay among female physicians. African-American physicians in the United States make just as much money as Caucasian women. Unfortunately, this good news is largely a result of dismal news – neither group of women make as much as white male physicians….