Daily Policy Digest
Health Issues
| Alternative Solutions to Florida's Medical Malpractice System There are alternatives that better serve the interests of aggrieved patients than a tort system utilizing civil courts that are currently burdened by a high volume of other matters... |
| The Federal Government's Deeply Flawed System for Controlling Medicare Costs The depressed prices from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' competitive bidding auctions for medical devices and equipment decrease investment in health care research and development by between $2.1 billion and $3.1 billion each year... |
| What to Do about Drug Shortages There were 74 newly reported drug shortages in 2005; in mid-2011 there were about 246 shortages, says Devon Herrick, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| The Future of U.S. Health Care Major players in the health care industry are blurring the lines between businesses that have traditionally been separate; many of these same efforts were attempted in the 1990s, and they often failed... |
| Medical Freedom Zones State governments should consider establishing a medical freedom zone within their border where medical innovation is encouraged, traditional regulations are limited, and patients and doctors are able to agree to tailored contracts... |
| When Cameras Are Watching, More Doctors Wash Up Before health workers started getting constant feedback, less than 7 percent of them washed their hands immediately when entering or before leaving a patient's room... |
| Foster Children Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs More Frequently than Non-Foster Children While only 4 percent of children in the general population are on psychiatric medications, several research studies show that this rate is 13 times higher for foster children... |
| Federal Effort to Commandeer the Nation's Salt Shakers Is Based on Bad Science Classifying excess sodium consumption as a "public health" danger mutilates a useful concept... |
| States Squirm over Health Exchanges The dynamic between states and the federal government in creating health insurance exchanges has espoused a new source of states' rights tension... |
| The Medicare Auction Design and Incentives for Research and Development Data show that in 2009 total national expenditures on durable medical equipment was $34.9 billion, of which $10.4 billion, or 29.9 percent, was paid by federal, non-defense programs... |
