The Medical Professionalism Blog
Recommended Reading: March 3-8
This week’s Recommended Reading articles highlight several factors that are driving our nation’s ever-increasing health care costs:
- According to Ezra Klein, high prices are the main reason that U.S. health care is so much costlier than in other countries. He cites a recent International Federation of Health Plans study which shows that Americans pay more than other countries for 22 out of 23 common procedures.
- In an Annals of Internal Medicine editorial, Virginia Moyer cites physician innumeracy (unfamiliarity with mathematical concepts and methods) as a reason for the overuse of certain medical tests.
- Will electronic medical records help or hurt us in curbing health care costs? A new study in Health Affairs found that patients whose physicians had electronic access to prior imaging results had a 40–70 percent greater likelihood of another imaging test being ordered.
Recommended Reading: March 3-8
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I am eagerly awaiting the day when the recommended reading includes pieces from conservative authors commenting on how government intrusion into medical care is a significant cause of higher prices. Mr. Klein’s superficial analysis does not include the fact that American medical students pay for their own education and often graduate with significant debt. Medical school is often paid for by European countries so the cost does not have to be made up by the practitioner. Furthermore, of course, he does not discuss malpractice which is clearly more expensive in the US. Is it professional to only include recommended reading from far-left big government types, or should there be broader representation across the political spectrum? Perhaps those who believe in alternative approaches to funding medical care have valid ideas also.