Medical Backtracking

Gail Collins proclaims the first ten years of the new millennium "the Decade of Medical Backtracking." Somewhere between the reports that Pap smears and tests for prostate cancer aren’t all they were cracked up to be and the news that a high fiber diet doesn’t do anything to prevent cancer, the health establishment began looking decidedly nonomniscient. Then this week, a ...

Health Care: Better, Faster, Cheaper!

In a much discussed post, Ezra Klein produced a series of graphs showing that Americans pay more for office visits, scans and imaging, drugs, and other aspects of health care -- often, far more -- than is the case in Canada or Western Europe. There is a simple explanation for why American health care costs so much more than health care ...

Health Reform Bill to Allow Insurance Payments For Prayer Healings

Via Kevin Drum, I have learned that current Senate version of the health reform bill would provide for insurance payments for Christian Science prayer treatments--and probably other "spiritual" treatments as well.Reporting from Washington - Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian ...

Obama Declares Swine Flu Emergency

President Obama has declared that the swine flu, which is much less prevalent and deadly than the ordinary influenza virus, is an "epidemic" and a "national emergency."  Silly as it sounds, it was the right call. President Obama has declared H1N1 swine flu a national emergency, clearing the way for his health chief to give hospitals wider leeway in how they ...

Defending Wyden-Bennett

On his new policy blog at True/Slant, E.D. Kain provides a good defense of the Wyden-Bennett Act.In Congress, however, we get bad compromises, not good ones, which is why we have the Baucus bill, which is neither as cost-effective, as close to universal coverage, or as fundamentally game-changing as Wyden-Bennett. Indeed, there is little to be enthusiastic about in ...

Drinking Like ‘Mad Men’

I'm getting the distinct sense that Slate's Double X spin-off is some sort of elaborate spoof rather than a smart, female-centric magazine.  Yesterday, via Julian Sanchez, I came across their insipid advice column saying it pushed the "limits of friendship" to expect one's friends to not leave you for dead after you'd been administered a date rape drug.  Today, via ...

Reich on End of Life Care

NewsBusters' P.J. Gladnick has dug up a 2007 speech by former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich that purportedly "reveal[s] the brutal truth about what liberals ultimately have in store for the public with their health care plan." I'll actually give you a speech made up entirely, almost on the spur of the moment, of what a candidate for president would say ...

Health Care Reform Tax on Low Income Earners

James Capretta does a back of the envelope calculation on the Baucus health care reform bill and concludes that it would be like having a 70% marginal tax rate on the low income. According to CBO, family coverage in 2016 is likely to cost about $14,400 under the so-called “silver option” in the health-care reform plan sponsored by Senate Finance Committee ...

Helmet Laws and Organ Donations

Tyler Cowen passes along a paper [PDF] which finds that "every death of a helmetless motorcyclist prevents or delays as many as 0.33 deaths among individuals on organ transplant waiting lists." The study is titled "Donorcycles:  Do Motorcycle Helmet Laws Reduce Organ Donations?" On balance, I oppose helmet and seatbelt laws on the grounds that the negative externalities imposed ...

Obesity: Nanny State Solution

Ezra Klein enjoys cooking and endorses "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver's notion that we'd be a healthier society if we cooked our meals at home rather than eating so much high calorie fare at chain restaurants.  Still, he notes, The problem is that the evidence suggests meals aren't driving the rise in obesity -- snacks are. A 2003 paper by economists David ...

Living to 100

A new study finds that living to 100  will soon be commonplace: If current life expectancy trends continue, more than half of babies born in rich nations since 2000 will live to 100 years of age, and they'll have less disability than elderly people in previous generations.  That's the conclusion of researchers who found that increases in life expectancy evident in ...

365 Days of Working Out

Rather amusing video of 365 days of photos of a rather out-of-shape fellow, John Stone, as he undergoes a workout and diet regimen. According to the linked website, he actually did this in 2003 but has kept it up. Via Jayvie Canono

Shouting ‘Liar’ in a Crowded Congress

The big news surrounding President Obama's latest heathcare speech is that South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" in response to the claim that illegal immigrants would not be covered under universal coverage: AP ("Obama heckled by GOP during speech to Congress"): The nastiness of August reached from the nation's town halls into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as President ...

OTB Caption Jam^TM

Weekend Caption Jam Linkfest. . . Rodney is still a little nuts. Wizbang landed chinese -- Won Wing Lo. Wyatt Earp has the Magnificent Six. Cowboy Blob lost his beer goggles RT's Ponderings has been canned. Blonde Sagacity has a real head banger. Military Times is keepin' cool Other Humor: Icanhascheezburger welcomes ...

ObamaCare 2.0

Charles Krauthammer proclaims "Obamacare Version 1.0 is dead" and helpfully proposes a version 2.0.  Basically:  No public option, no death panels end-of-life counseling, softpeddle government "best practices," abandon cost-cutting, and guaranteeing universal coverage. What's not to like? If you have insurance, you'll never lose it. Nor will your children ever be denied coverage for preexisting conditions. The regulated insurance companies will get ...