Health Wonk Review

Welcome to this edition of the Health Wonk Review.  For those of you new to the blog, and wondering what the heck the medical humanities are, and what their relation is to health policy, I'll quote from our previous opportunity to host:

As I see it, the key role for a medical humanist – if they wish to be consistent with an ethos of medieval and Renaissance humanists – is to focus on the translation of theory into practice.  Humanists eschewed the logic and abstractions that Scholastics privileged, reasoning that they did little to move those outside the cloisters and universities to live virtuously.

This ideal is perhaps most easily exemplified by Erasmus, who, in the humanist tradition, prioritized the study of rhetoric because, as Petrarch put it in citing Cicero and Quintillian, rhetoric was what moved people’s hearts.

Erasmus saw the handwriting on the wall, and devoted much of his life to a kind of moral epistolary practice, exchanging letters with Luther in the hope of averting bloodshed.  Erasmus deemed the prospect of war obvious given Luther and the ‘schismatics’ belief system.

A contemporary of Martin Luther’s and a devoted Catholic,

What could be more virtuous than using scholarship and language in the hopes of preventing violence and horror?

Not even his best efforts could prevent the coming storm, but his ideal remains one worth emulating, in my view.  Such is the need to translate scholarship into practice, and this is a quintessentially humanist precept.

As such, health policy remains a particular province of interest for me, and one in which I submit the medical humanist may have something to offer.  With this said, let us see what rhetoric our interlocutors have prepared for us, and what voices they speak in.

Over at Health Disparities Blog, David Porter links to a current debate within Australia over universal care.  But not quite the debate you might imagine.  He notes: "Here in the U.S. the debate is focused on whether or not universal health care should exist. In Australia the issue is how young a person should be when they get their own private universal health care account."

Speaking of Australia, health care systems around the world is the topic of Jason Shafrin's collection of posts over at Healthcare Economist.

Back on our shores, Roy Poses challenges CMS's inclusion of delirium as a non-reimbursable event within hospitals.

As to hospitals, Henry Stern wonders aloud whether the movement of health care out of hospitals and into specialty clinics may actually be advantageous.  Perhaps, though there is good reason to bemoan the increasing specialization of acute care in the U.S., as such care is a significant driver of health care costs, and diverts resources from primary care.

Something I've learned both in studying health policy and in practicing insurance law: insurance is complicated.  David Hamilton breaks it all down for you, courtesy of a WellPoint conference call, so you can see exactly where the incentives are aligned.

Seeing as how the health insurance industry might need some good publicity, Richard Eskow over at The Sentinel Effect notes the strange bedfellows who have rallied behind attempts to limit the sale of alcopops.  Yes, alcopops.

Eric Turkewitz, a general must-read on tort law and medicine, cites evidence that less than 2% of matriculating medical students from New York leave New York due to malpractice concerns.

Sticking with malpractice, the Canadian Medicine Blog details the development of apology laws -- which we've touched on here from a U.S. perspective -- in Ontario.

From lawyers to laws: At Drug Channels, Adam Fein lauds the introduction of H.R. 5839, which would preempt state standards regarding the pharmacy supply chain.

The likely passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act made news this past week, and Louise over at Colorado Health Insurance Insider analyzes the ramifications for -- you guessed it -- Colorado health insurance.

Following a long and distinguished line of critics pointing out the inadequacies of much of the Bush Administrations' science and health policies, Mark Schauss notes that the White House could hardly look siller in denying the evidence-based link between smog and premature death.

Tackling a particularly troubling quality of care problem, Emily Cleath outlines the myriad problems plaguing the veterans health care 'system.'

Over at GoozNews, Merrill Goozner notes, as did many others, the long-awaited release of the AAMC's report on conflicts of interest in medical education.

You didn't think we'd get through an entire HWR without mentioning coverage, did you? Brian Klepper delivers the goods in his analysis of a new study documenting the general coverage erosion as to employer-sponsored health insurance.  And see Anthony Wright's excellent discussion of John McCain's health care plan, if it can be called as such.

You didn't think we'd get through an entire HWR without mentioning health care technology, did you? Fellow Cardinal David Williams eases your suffering with this discussion of Aimee, a web-based tool that helps providers understand typical radiation exposures associated with certain scans.

Sometimes, technology actually improves quality, as Tom Emswiler notes.  Huzzah!

Over at e-CareManagement, Vince Kuraitis wonders if the medical establishment is actually the best caretaker for your medical records.  Reminds me of a particularly humorous Seinfeld episode . . .

Speaking of humorous Seinfeld episodes, Jaan Sidorov has a thoughtful analysis of the recent fat-vs-fit study, sounding a pleasant note of skepticism, always welcome here at MH Blog in thinking about fatness and obesity.

Last, but obviously not least: Over at the Blogfather of the HWR, Jon Koppelman reasons that Tier 4 pricing for certain pharmaceuticals is unquestionably rationing.

Comments

[hgstern]

Great job, Daniel!

Thank you for hosting, and for including our post.

[dave]

An excellent roundup and thanks for the link.

I'm off to enjoy a non-fat yougurt.

[Bob Walton]

This appears to be an interesting and informative medical blog. Good job.