The Medical AI Miracle? Health Data for Health Coverage.

Mike Magee In his book, “The Age of Diminished Expectations” (MIT Press/1994), Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman, famously wrote, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything.” A year earlier, psychologist Karl E. Weich from the University of Michigan penned the term “sensemaking” based on his belief that the human mind […]

The Three Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex – and the Physician. Part 4. Inside the White House – Cost vs. Coverage.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee When President Obama entered office in 2008, and made the political assessment that it was now or never for health care reform, he saw waste and excess everywhere he looked. As New York Times columnist, Steven Brill, explained in 2015, he found: an $86 billion expenditure annually for ineffective treatments […]

The Economic Determinants of Homeland Security: Why The U.S. Is A Better Bet Than China or Russia.

Mike Magee Homeland security is all about economics. And the two levers most critical to the U.S. economy are energy independence and health care. On these two measures, I like America’s odds when compared to China and Russia. Growing up through the 50’s and 60’s, I’d listen to my parents discuss politics with their friends. […]

Health Manpower Planning In “A Zero Marginal Cost” Economy.

Mike Magee This week an economist with rose colored glasses suggested that there were two reasons for extreme optimism toward the United States economy, even as Putin goes out on an economic limb to assume the liability of his old Soviet partners. The first positive is our well publicized movement toward energy independence, with the […]

The 62 Billion Dollar Question: Can Health Care Overcome Geography?

Mike Magee Sixty-two billion. That is what Medicare spent in 2012 on post-acute care. (1,2) “Post-Acute Care” is the term applied to various types of intermediate care provided to newly released patients from an acute care hospital. The care is provided by home health agencies in the home or by brick and mortar employees at […]

Is Health Care Spending Declining In America?

Mike Magee Election aside, the data is now coming in on our heath care economy for 2012. According to a recent report by the Health Care division at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, our health care spending will grow by 7.5 percent next year. This is a slower rate of medical growth than in the recent past. Credit […]