Retiree Health Care and the Struggle in Wisconsin

The struggle over Governor Walker's attack on public sector unions in Wisconsin sent me to a report - "Retiree Health Care: The Br...

Alcoholism and Personal Responsibility

I'll soon be consulting about a fascinating clinical situation involving an elderly person with alcoholism, other medical problems, and ...

A Personal Medical Experience

I recently had a personal medical experience that showed me (a) how the health system can function well when its components, including the ...

The New York Times offers this report-card-type synopsis on how successfully the health care reform law is being implemented throughout th...

Treating Patients with Respect

Readers of this blog know that I admire Randy Cohen's "The Ethicist" column in the New York Times Magazine. Yesterday Randy re...

Can Patients Trust Accountable Care Organizations?

The 1990s version of managed care 1.0 crashed and burned because of distrust. Physicians distrusted the utilization review systems and payme...

The U.S. Psyche Meets the Individual Mandate

As a psychiatrist working in the area of ethics, I find the mandate for individuals to buy health insurance - with financial support as need...

Academic Medical Centers, ACOs, and Medical Ethics

The February 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine features two articles about Accountable Care Organizations at Academic Medical C...

How to Defend Resistance to the Health Insurance Mandate

For decades, the U.S. has seen the number of uninsured as a national disgrace. We've wrung our policy hands together to address the prob...

Judge Vinson's Ruling

I've spent several fascinating hours reading the decision handed down yesterday by Judge Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court for No...