Medicaid

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What Are the Real Consequences of ObamaCare?

If America has anything, it’s a disease care system that focuses on episodic interventions by health care professionals trying to salvage a patient from the ravages of chronic diseases, many of which are self-induced. It’s a system that does not focus on health maintenance, something that really would alter the nature of the country’s well-being. I would argue that using the same money we are spending on this ObamaCare nonsense to teach kids in elementary school how to eat, shop, cook, exercise, not use drugs or tobacco and to have safe sex would probably improve health in the country far more than this bill ever did or will.

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What The U.S. Can Learn From Brazil's Healthcare Mess

Olga Khazan | The Atlantic | May 8, 2014

Here’s what it looks like when a sprawling, diverse nation tries to cover everybody....By a lot of measures, Brazil’s Sistema Único de Saúde—or SUS—has led to huge health gains.

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What’s Next for Health Care? Confused Congress Should Look to Indian Country

Mark Trahant | Yes! Magazine | July 28, 2017

Senate Republicans campaigned against Obamacare for seven years. Yet there was never an alternative that had support from a majority of their own party. The problem is simple: Many (not all) Republicans see health care programs that help people—the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, etc.—as welfare. Others look at the evidence and see these programs that are effective: insuring people, creating jobs, supporting a rural economy, and actually resulting in better health outcomes. Evidence-based success stories...

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What’s Next in Federal Healthcare Policy? Two Industry Observers Offer Predictions

Mark Hagland | Healthcare Informatics | March 14, 2017

On Monday, March 13, Healthcare Informatics Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland interviewed two healthcare industry observers regarding current developments in federal healthcare policy. Hagland interviewed Jeremy Miller and Miranda Franco just hours before the news broke of the “scoring” of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the healthcare legislation introduced by Republican leaders of the House of Representatives on March 6, to replace elements of the health insurance provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed by Congress and signed into law in March2010 by President Barack Obama...

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While University Presidents Earn Millions, Many Professors Struggle

Story Hinckley | The Christian Science Monitor | December 8, 2015

In a survey of private US universities released Sunday by the Chronicle of Higher Education, the typical president at a private university earned an annual salary of $436,429 in 2013, up 5.6 percent from the year before. In all, 32 private university presidents earned $1 million or more in compensation in 2013. And private college presidents aren’t the only ones raking it in. The average public college president earned over $428,000 in 2014, reported the Chronicle...

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Why 99 percent of health care should be angry

Roy Poses | KevinMD.com | October 18, 2011

As Occupy Wall Street has gone from an obscure protest covered only on blogs and social media to a national phenomenon, the apparent parallels between the issues it is raising and the issues we have been raising in health care grows. Read More »

Why Americans Are Drowning In Medical Debt

Olga Khazan | The Atlantic | October 8, 2014

Healthcare is the number-one cause of personal bankruptcy and is responsible for more collections than credit cards...

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Why an MRI Costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France

Ezra Klein | The Washington Post | March 3, 2012

There is a simple reason health care in the United States costs more than it does anywhere else: The prices are higher.

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Why Computerized Medical Records Are Bad for Both You and Your Doctor

Samuel Shem | Newsweek | November 1, 2019

We should not click for cash, but for care. We can use the data to benefit the patient-and the medical professionals...The EMR could have been a lifesaver. It still can be. If we get rid of on-screen, for-profit billing, and use electronic screens exclusively for care, we solve a lot of problems. We could create a true national health care system, modeled after our existing two national systems-Medicare/Medicaid and the VA. As in all other national systems, each procedure would cost about the same all over the country. On longitudinal charts showing the health of Americans as they age, a sharp rise in good health suddenly increases at age 65, when Medicare kicks in. Read More »

Why Do Medicare, Medicaid And Veterans Affairs Deal With Drug Costs Differently?

David Sell | Philly.com | April 9, 2013

Countries sometimes do things differently from other countries or gain reputations for doing certain things well or poorly. But within a country, within the same federal government, does it make sense to do things differently among departments or programs that are providing essentially the same service? Read More »

Why Electronic Health Records Aren't More Usable

Ken Terry | CIO | December 3, 2015

Federal government incentives worth about $30 billion have persuaded the majority of physicians and hospitals to adopt electronic health record (EHR) systems over the past few years. However, most physicians do not find EHRs easy to use. Physicians often have difficulty entering structured data in EHRs, especially during patient encounters. The records are hard to read because they're full of irrelevant boilerplates generated by the software and lack individualized information about the patient...

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Why Some Docs Will 'Just Say No' To MU

Madelyn Kearns | Healthcare IT News | August 8, 2014

Thousands of eligible providers are working diligently toward EHR incentive payments, but some practices are choosing a different route: abandoning meaningful use altogether in favor of their own solutions, and finding ways to make up for the penalties they’ll incur down the road...

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Why the Threatened AHRQ Is Vital to the Hospital Industry

Meg Bryant | Healthcare DIVE | April 13, 2017

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is on the chopping block — again — and supporters are gearing up for what could be their biggest fight yet to save the little-known agency. In his fiscal year 2018 budget proposal, President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating AHRQ’s funding and folding the agency into the National Institutes of Health, which itself is facing a proposed 18% cut to its current $31.7 billion budget, and a requested $1.2 billion cut in FY 2017 funding.

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Why There Will Never Be an Uber for Healthcare

Tom Valenti | TechCrunch | June 11, 2016

You should walk away from anyone who says there can be an “Uber for healthcare.” It is the equivalent of someone saying they “have a bridge to sell you.” Or, more precisely, it shows a complete lack of understanding for how healthcare works and how positive health outcomes are actually achieved. Why do we keep hearing “Uber for healthcare”?...

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Winners And Losers With The 21st Century Cures Bill

Sydney Lupkin and Steven Findlay | NPR | December 2, 2016

A sprawling health bill that passed the Senate Thursday by a 94 to 5 vote and is expected to gain President Obama's signature is a grab bag for industries, academic institutions and patient groups that spent oodles of time and money lobbying to advance their interests. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calls it "the most important legislation that Congress will pass this year." Who wins and who loses? Here's the rundown of what's at stake in the 21st Century Cures Act...

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