Fixing the physician-patient relationship

Patient
August 14, 2014

I wish I had a dollar every time someone gets misty-eyed about the physician-patient relationship — and two dollars every time they say protecting it is the key to health care. That might be true, if you thought health care was awesome circa 1960.

Hereʼs what the physician-patient relationship meant back then: Physicians say, patients pay. We have seen little progress since then. The claim that the relationship is now symmetrical …

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Fixing the physician-patient relationship

The best thing a doctor ever did to me

Patient
February 16, 2014

In fall of 1994, I was sixteen years old and sick. I had lost a lot of weight, reduced my diet to BRAT and roast chicken, filled a half-dozen stool samples, even tried a few prescriptions — and nothing seemed to help.

By that point I was seeing a gastroenterologist, Dr. C. After a pointless barium enema and follow-through, Dr. C performed a colonoscopy. From that, he gave me a definitive …

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The best thing a doctor ever did to me

Real market reforms for health care

Health Policy
January 4, 2014

Whatever the problems with the roll out of Healthcare.gov, the fact is that the government take-over of health care has been happening for more than a century. If we want a truly free market for health care, we have to think in broader and bolder terms than simply rolling back the ACA. With that in mind, here is a short list of patient-focused ways to get the government out of …

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Real market reforms for health care

Do you believe sick and disabled people deserve care?

Health Policy
November 16, 2013

The roll out of Healthcare.gov has given plenty of ammunition to opponents of health care reform, who style themselves as crusaders against incompetence. While many who oppose the program do so in good faith, some critics carry an ugly prejudice against sick and disabled people.

That prejudice is “just deserts” — the idea that people get what they deserve. Rich people deserve their luxury. Poor people deserve their poverty. Sick and …

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Do you believe sick and disabled people deserve care?

Why health care is a civil right

Patient
October 31, 2012

I want to clear up a misunderstanding often voiced in the healthcare blog universe: namely, whether health care is a right or a service. Our answer to this question will affect how we approach healthcare reform in the next Congress, so let me say plainly: health care is a civil right.

Civil rights are what we call those claims necessary to secure free and equal citizenship, secondary to basic rights. For …

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Why health care is a civil right

Sick friends could use your help

Patient
April 20, 2010

Illness might be the most isolating and alienating experience a person can know. Lots of well people simply have no clue how to relate to someone with a chronic and catastrophic illness. That sort of thing is scary even just to witness. They hope (or assume) you’ll get better, and then they won’t have to deal with whatever you’re going through – but when that takes too long, they drift …

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Sick friends could use your help