by joeflower | Feb 25, 2011 | Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Insurance, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Top Healthcare Stories
According to a new poll, half of all Americans say they are “confused” about healthcare reform. And boy howdy, are they right! Take a look at this new Kaiser Family Fund poll: http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/8156-C.pdf Scan down to Slide 9: Almost a quarter of...
by joeflower | Jan 3, 2011 | Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Systems Thinking, Top Healthcare Stories
I had a great discussion not long ago with a naive believer in “free markets”—naïve in his fairly unexplored belief that the market provides a better solution to pretty much any problem than government does. Over lunch, after a talk I gave, this fellow...
by joeflower | Dec 1, 2010 | Future Hospital Industry, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Management, Healthcare Policy, Systems Thinking, Top Healthcare Stories
The right payment structure keeps patients healthy while saving money. (Originally published in Hospitals and Health Networks Weekly, 11/30/2010) We want healthcare to be abundant, effective, easy, and cheap; for too many of us too much of the time it is scarce,...
by jflower | Jun 24, 2010 | Future Hospital Industry, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Management, Healthcare Policy, Systems Thinking, Top Healthcare Stories
Here’s a simple key to parsing the future economics of healthcare. We have been trying for over 30 years to control healthcare costs. And there is little evidence that any of these efforts have had much effect. For decades the rise in healthcare costs has been...
by jflower | Mar 30, 2010 | Future Hospital Industry, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Insurance, Healthcare Management, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Top Healthcare Stories, Universal Healthcare
It’s coming back!The health care reform debate is only through the first round. In a few years, as early as 2013 or 2014, we are likely to see another round, with at least as much whacked-out drama as this one. But the cry will not be, “Bring back the good old days!”...
by jflower | Dec 10, 2009 | Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Insurance, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare Reform, Systems Thinking, Top Healthcare Stories
If competition the way it is structured at present actually drives the cost of health care up rather than down, what would bring lower costs? What provisions in a “health reform act” would actually drop costs in health care? Let’s leave aside for the moment all the...