Medicare Already Limiting Seniors' Access to Care, As Will Obamacare

The Washington Post reports on physicians' reducing the number of appointments they'll give to seniors enrolled in the traditional Medicare monopoly.

What is needed is rigorous measurement of this phenomenon – like the Canadian Fraser Institute’s measurement of waiting times for specialist and hospital care under the government monopoly up there. Obviously, the U.S. government would never fund such research.

December 7 Speech: Alternatives to Obamacare in Contra Costa County, Northern California

I'll be speaking in Contra Costa County on December 7, 6-8 p.m., on alternatives to Obamacare.  It's free and there'll be plenty of time for Q&A.  Round up your friends and neighbors. Register here.

Thanksgiving Break Until Next Monday

Enjoy your vacation!

Health IT and Airport Scanners

Greg Scandlen has sounded a warning about government-dictated health IT.  He points to a scholarly article which demonstrates that health IT can make delivering medical care more dangerous than otherwise.  Mr. Scandlen points out that vendors of health IT are hungry for government hand-outs, which will be significant under Obamacare.

Will Health Reform Save Lives?

Over at the John Goodman Health Policy Blog, Mr. Goodman points out the absurdity of thinking that "uninsurance" is a useful predictor of health status.  Because most uninsured people are uninsured for only a few months, it's not a useful explanatory variable.  Frictional uninsurance is linked to unemployment.  If individuals owned their own health insurance, the problem would be a lot smaller.

One commenter believes that Obamacare's exchanges will help, because people will own their own policies as long as they're in an exchange.  However, you only get the subsidy if you choose your plan from whatever set is available through the state-based exchange.

Competition in Hospitals

I'm involved in an interesting discussion on hospital mortality and the perverse nature of competition amongst hospitals over at John Goodman's Health Policy Blog.

What's Wrong with Long-Term-Care Insurance? Medicaid is one Answer

Medicaid is the single largest payer for long-term-care (LTC) insurance.  That's an important part of the explanation for difficulties in the private market, as I discuss at John Goodman's Health Policy Blog.