Category Archives: Health care

Inequality Kills: Top 1% Lives 15 Years Longer Than the Poorest

Inequality kills, as the death gap between the richest and poorest rises to 15 years in the US.

Hospital Profits and Quality May Fall, But Hospital Executives’ Compensation Keeps Rising

Executive looting, hospital style.

The Zika Virus: Big Moneymaker for Big Pharma?

Some black humor on how a drug company might look at the commercial potential of a Zika treatment.

Market Fundamentalism on ObamaCare at the New York Times

A close reading of a Times story showing the ideology of market fundamentalism in action.

We Stopped Pfizer’s Tax Dodge, Now Let’s End the Buybacks

Why companies, particularly ones that get large taxpayer subsidies like Pfizer, should not be allowed to manipulate their stock prices thorough buybacks.

Gaius Publius: Will Sanders Play His Ace?

Sanders lists demands for Clinton if he fails to get the nomination…and it includes demands like single payer that are so far from her current position that it is inconceivable that she will give them lip service.

A Modest Proposal: Securitizing Loans for Large Health Care Expenses

Health care loans are the equivalent of mortgages for large health care expenses. What could go wrong?

“The Battle for VA Healthcare and Its Funding”

Despite its problems, the VA outperforms most of the US healthcare system on nearly every metric of quality.

How McKinsey Helped Turn Big Pharma into a Rent Extraction Business

How McKinsey contributed to the devolution of Big Pharma.

Responding to Political Attacks on Single Payer

PNHP’s talking points on single payer, with comments and a critique.

Criminal Matter for the Attorney General of NY? NYC’s $764M Medical Records System Will Lead to ‘Patient Death’: Insiders

Another IT debacle, this one with medical records, and so with potentially lethal consequences

Gaius Publius: The Goal of the Neo-Liberal Consensus Is to Manage the Decline

Neoliberals want ordinary people to accept that their standard of living will decline. It’s not hard to see whose interest that story promotes.

ObamaCare and the Crapification of Health Care: A Case Study, and a Growing Collection of Horror Stories

A case study of health care in Belgium vs. the United States, and reader comments on the health care system as impacted by ObamaCare