March 10th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Today the Commonwealth Fund came out with a chart that it says is a “grim reminder” of what happens when health care doesn’t get reformed.
If only we had listened to Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter. We would have saved tens of trillions of dollars in health care spending.
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*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
March 3rd, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy
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Barely a week after Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said he wants state controls on the price of health insurance, President Obama apparently wants to do the same at the federal level. Both men must believe it’s good politics, because there are about 4,000 years of evidence that it’s not good policy.
But the trouble for reformers has never really been about policy. It’s been about a fundamental misunderstanding of how people view health care and the very bad things that happen when you give people the impression you’re going to mess with what they have.
In this sense, the reform bills are like perpetual anxiety machines. Contraptions that continually produce more public anxiety than they consume.
But why is this?
Well one of the surest ways to create anxiety in someone is to make them feel uncertain about something important to them. It’s one reason why companies suffer from problems with morale in tough economic times. If a company doesn’t level with its employees about what’s happening, smart employees start to assume it must be because the news is bad. Otherwise, why wouldn’t the management come out and explain that everything is ok? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
February 15th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced this week he has had enough of rising health care costs.
So he is proposing a novel solution: make them illegal.
Well, it’s not fair to call this idea “novel.” Governments have tried price controls for 40 centuries. And even though they don’t work, they keep trying. The explanation isn’t complicated. It’s an easy way for a politician to seem to do something about rising prices. In this case, it won’t do much about the underlying problem, but it is a terrific way for a governor to look like a man of action. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*