I sat through the State of the Union (SOTU) speech, and it raised many more questions for me than answers. I remember back when this speech was a chance for the President to offer solutions to the country’s problems and would use the platform to bring both sides together around those solutions. The SOTU has slowly morphed into a raucous, reaction-baiting contest, and this time it turned into full-out campaign speech. Now I realize that this election season is different than any other. The questions about President Biden’s viability to serve another 4 years has been on the forefront of everyone ..read more

I’ve often written about the dangers of letting the government insert itself too deep into our healthcare. It’s not because our government is evil −it’s because the goals of government are not always aligned with those of the people it governs. It’s just another case of bad incentives. Our lawmakers don’t get elected by proclaiming that they will let our economy, through the powers of the free market, solve a problem. Their solution is generally to come up with some regulatory fix or to introduce new legislation. Unfortunately, we are partially to blame because we seem to immediately turn to t ..read more

In earlier blogs I’ve urged people to contact their lawmakers to tell them how they feel about proposed legislation or other rules that affect them. It’s no secret that lawmakers are interested in what you think because you vote. A powerful scenario that demonstrates the power you have is when you set up an appointment with one of your lawmakers who represent you and tell them that every Saturday you meet seven friends for breakfast. As a group, you talk about what kind of job the politicians that represent you and run this country are doing– and next Saturday, when you meet again, your friend ..read more

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) held a hearing last Wednesday on the price of prescription drugs. For the opening panel, Senator Sanders invited CEOs from three pharmaceutical manufacturers and three subject matter experts: Joaquin Duato, CEO, Johnson & Johnson; Robert Davis, CEO, Merck; Chris Boerner, CEO Bristol Myers Squibb; Peter Maybarduk, J.D., Access to Medicines Director, Public Citizen; Tahir Amin, LL.B., CEO, Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge; and Darius Lakdawalla, Ph.D., Director, Research, University of Southern Californ ..read more

February is National Heart Month, and I’m not sure, but maybe this month was chosen because of Valentine’s Day. It would certainly be appropriate since one of the best ways you could show your love to your sweetheart is to get them in the habit of doing heart-healthy things − and also give them the gift of a healthier partner by adopting heart healthy practices for yourself. So, what do you mean when you say heart-healthy you might ask? I’m so glad you asked! Heart-healthy means adopting a lifestyle that helps reduce the risk of heart disease. We’ve all heard the standard instructions doctors ..read more

Many of my blogs have talked about how perverse incentives have driven parts of the healthcare process away from serving the patient and toward serving and rewarding other participants in the process. Using the adjective “perverse” might be too strong and to some reflect negatively on incentives. Incentives are a good thing when they give us better products at a lower price. It’s what makes the free market work so well. You are driven to make a better mousetrap to capture more of the mousetrap market. You are driven to be more efficient to lower your overhead costs to make your price more comp ..read more

January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month and, as I said last January, glaucoma is the secret sight-stealing disease. It’s a secret because it doesn’t have symptoms in its early stages that are easily detected by the affected person. It makes being aware a particularly important part of our defense to this sight-stealing disease. On that vain, let’s review some facts about the disease. Glaucoma is a group of diseases that damage the eye’s optic nerve and can result in vision loss and even blindness. About three million Americans have glaucoma. It is the second leading cause of blindness wo ..read more

The yearly extravaganza called CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is the place where the new computer run devices and the accompanying software are revealed. It is held each year in Las Vegas Neveda. CES brought together over 4,300 exhibiters and 135,000 attendees. I attend this conference so I can report back to you on what is new in medical devices that help older Americans and what amazing things are on the horizon. I’m not here to promote any specific company and, as such, I won’t identify any company by name. I will describe new innovations, and I’ll do my best to explain them in laymen term ..read more

It seems to me that the older I get the more things I don’t understand. This is not a new phenomenon; I think every generation since the beginning of time has felt this way, but it seems that things change so fast that it’s tough to understand how these new things will affect my life. For instance, what the heck are cryptocurrencies? Is it really money that you can mine from a computer and put it in a wallet that only exists in the cloud or inside your computer and then the value changes depending on the whim of some mystical complicated marketplace? I’m still mad that the country went off the ..read more

This has been a banner year for changes to our healthcare. We began the year by trying to return to our pre COVID status, and it hasn’t been easy. The reduced funding and the return to the established Medicaid rules have proven to be difficult. Removing people from Medicaid eligibility impacts people, and it was exacerbated by the administrative problems each state had to overcome. This is an example of how difficult it is to withdraw a government benefit, even one that was instigated as a temporary emergency reaction to a pandemic. This year implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA ..read more