Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
You have to love idealistic students. Medical students in California, working with a prominent legislator, are pushing for a state-run single-payer system that would end the health insurance industry’s role in the system.
The students have a solid case, but single payer will never succeed in the US.
California is much better, Florida is doing great, heck, even Texas is really trying to fix its workers comp system. Among the larger states, that leaves NY as the leader in the “state that needs workers comp reform the most” contest.
And boy does it.
Despite what some Congressional Dems say, requiring CMS Secretary Mike Leavitt to negotiate drug prices with big pharma is not going to save us gazillions of dollars.
It also won’t lead to a sudden decline in pharmaceutical research (sorry, Manhattan Institute). It’s good political theater, but the real impact will be minimal.
Unless…
Continue reading How to make negotiating drug prices pay off
I’m continuing to follow the fortunes of Revolution Health, the Steve Case venture into health care, consumerism, education, wellness, and peripheral matters. Not much new news since my last query; the website is still under construction, but you can enter as a “test guest” here.
David Williams at Health Business Blog is hosting the latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk.
Check out the entry on physicians who direct some “risky” patients to the ER, and the reasons they do.
In response to my post on new narcotic Fentora, which was picked up by Kevin, M.D. over at his blog, a physician reads the riot act to a commenter who said that docs should be blamed for any misuse.
Pundits and experts on the right side of the political spectrum are claiming that giving CMS the authority to negotiate drug prices will cost Americans $500 billion in lost productivity due to an annual loss of five million life years.
There are so many flaws in their arguments it’s hard to know where to start, but let’s plunge in.
Workers comp payers will be seeing a new drug on their top 25 lists soon – Fentora. While it may take a couple of years to attain Actiq’s top-five status, it will.
The outcome of the “can we or can’t we negotiate with drug manufacturers?” discussion is becoming clearer, as political realities appear to be saying “we can in some limited circumstances.”
One of the more thoughtful articles I’ve seen on medical tourism is at the Miami Herald.
