Policy & Ethics

While I appreciate the Times' long overdue recognition of the plight of pain sufferers, the headline of this article is only half correct - There *is* no good news on prescribing.

Reprinted with permission.

Insurance in trying to reduce costs has more frequently favored the stick over the carrot. The stick’s most common forms are high deductibles and co-payments, creating enough friction, they hope, to make you think twice.

I hate bumperstickers for two reasons: (1) I do not want to know every political opinion held by the people driving in front of me on I-5; and (2) They often boil down extremely complex topics into ridiculously oversimplified mottos.

One of the indigenous tribes of Canada and the US, the Ojibwe or perhaps you know them as the Chippewa, made a bit of legal history, passing a law formally recognizing the Rights of Manoomin – wild rice.

Several Medicare for All proposals are on the table. I intuitively liked one alternative, a Medicare buy-in for those age 50 to 64; moving towards a well-functioning single payer system and more incremental than Medicare for All.

A long time ago, the pioneers of cardiovascular surgery would move from operating room [OR] to operating room performing the critical parts of the surgical procedure.

I'd like to propose a plan to put Americans on Jupiter by 2030. It goes like this:

From hospital inpatient “wealth screenings” for potential donors to digital geofencing cell phones in emergency rooms, the erosion of patient privacy is a prominent reality.

Jimmy McMillan might have been right. Not a name that comes readily to mind? Mr.