The Future of Health Reform – as The Supreme Court Decision Looms.

Mike Magee Anyone with even a fleeting interest in Health Care Policy had eyes and ears focused on the three days of testimony earlier this week before the Supreme Court. Up for grabs is the future of the Affordable Care Act. The arguments for and against were pretty high minded – Can you say “Liberty”? […]

Health Care Reform – A Reasonable Risk: Building On 75 Years Of Progress

Mike Magee With the Presidential Election just around the corner in the U.S., jobs and the economy are the #1 issue on most voters lists – but healthcare is right behind because healthcare is a huge job creator and has a huge impact on national and individual economies. Of course the big debate in healthcare […]

Will Nurse Practitioners Fill The Primary Care Gap?

Mike Magee The air has been thick in the past few weeks with articles about an impending doctor shortage – especially primary care doctors. But for leading nurse practitioners, the current conditions spell opportunity not threat.(1) Take Patricia Dennehy RN NP for example. She is the director of GLIDE Health Services in San Francisco and […]

The Drip, Drip, Drip of Health Care Reform: Insights From The Pitch Drop Experiment

MikeMagee If you look in the Guiness Book of Records, you will discover that the record for the world’s longest running laboratory experiment is held by the Pitch Drop Experiment at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. The experiment was begun in 1927 by physics professor Thomas Parnell who wished to demonstrate how viscous […]

Do We Really Need More Physicians?

Mike Magee President Obama’s Affordable Care Act arguably signaled that the status quo in health delivery was no longer acceptable. This was not the result of politics or a desire for social engineering, but a reflection of changing dynamic forces reshaping an out-of-date sector. The three key trends that outpaced our delivery system were an […]

Of Three Lessons From Mass. Experience – #3 Is Critical

In the wake of last night’s Republican debate, it is interesting to note 3 lessons provided in the last paragraph of this week’s lead opinion article in NEJM by Staiger et al (Health Care Reform and Health Care Workforce – The Massachusetts Experience): 1. “Reform may accelerate the trend toward health care’s being the dominant […]