Through vacations, heat waves, and days on the beach, our health policy wonks are still on the job. As we eke out the remaining days of summer and slouch toward the interim election, they continue their relentless focus on opining about the issues of the day. Check our August edition entries.
- First up, Joe Paduda unpacks the generic term to uncover the varied approaches to universal coverage currently operating at far lower cost and far better outcomes than our “multi-payer” “system” in his post What exactly is single payer at Managed Care Matters.
- Louise Norris tells us that the Trump administration has finalized rules that will make it easier for many Americans to buy short-term health insurance plans that may be less expensive – but aren’t as comprehensive as ACA-compliant plans. She explains the rules and how they’ll affect consumers in her post at healthInsurance.org Blog: ‘So long’ to limits on short-term plans.
- Folks at the Medical Care Blog look at an important public health issue, a children’s health crisis. Dr. Julie Graves – a family medicine and public health physician who previously served as a regional medical director in Texas – addresses the ongoing family separation crisis at the border: What’s Next? The Ongoing Crisis for Children Taken from Families Seeking Asylum at the US-Mexico Border. (Related, see her recent article on the topic at CNN: The surgeon general needs to step up for migrants.)
- When should services be covered by government insurance compared to private insurance? How does the public/private insurance vary around the world? Jason Shafrin, the Healthcare Economist investigates: What should be covered by government vs. private insurance?
- At Healthcare Renewal, Roy Poses says “This is starting to get tedious. ” He notes that it used to be nearly all the cases we found of ill-informed and/or mission-hostile health care management were about top leaders of big private health care organizations, eg, hospital systems, insurance companies, pharma/ biotech/ device companies, etc. But he notes that since 2016, the locus has shifted: Ill-informed, Mission-Hostile Health Care Leadership… in the White House and the US Department of Health and Human Services. He makes his case with a roundup of cases.
- At InsureBlog, Patrick Paule puts paid to the notion that Medicare4All is any great deal or panacea. he makes his case in his post On BernieCare.
- What’s worse than needing help with gait, mobility and balance? Being told you need a walker. No wonder, when the typical walker basically screams “frail elderly,” and is difficult to use as well. At Health Business Blog, David Williams talks with neurologist Patricia Kavanagh about how she teamed up with a design and production team to a modern device that is more functional and stylish in an effort to get her patients with Parkinson’s and other movement disorders to use a walker.
- Vincent Grippi pf the CareCentrix’s Homefront Blog submits this month’s episode of #CareTalk, in which David Williams (Health Business Group) and John Driscoll (CareCentrix) discuss Trump’s fight with Pfizer over drug pricing, and more.
- Here at Workers Comp Insider, we’ve yet to do a post on this important occupational health issue, but call it to your attention. We were horrified to see that the EPA is loosening regulations that will expose more workers to a know carcinogen: EPA is now allowing asbestos back into manufacturing. At least one town in Russia – Asbest – is celebrating.
Next issue: September 20 – Andrew Sprung – xpostfactoid
