January 21, 2018 A Yale psychiatrist, Dr. Bandy Lee, is enjoying her fifteen minutes of fame as the editor of the bestseller “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” This book contains the opinions of 27 psychiatrists and psychologists, some of whom believe the President suffers from cognitive dysfunction and mental illness. In doing so, they are damaging a specialty that has struggled to gain respectability among the general public and making it more difficult for those with mental disorders to receive treatment. Psychiatry is a tough profession. Unlike other medical specialties such as ophthalmology, cardiology and orthopedics, our understanding of the brain is still in the Stone Age. The underlying physiology of the eye, heart and skeletal system is well understood. If a cataract is blurring vision, take it out. If a heart artery is blocked, unblock it. If a bone is broken, set it. But what do you do with a drug addict, an alcoholic, a schizophrenic or a depressed patient? There are no blood tests or radiological studies that give a definitive diagnosis of these entities let alone … [Read more...]
Donald Trump Should Replace Obamacare with a Universal Health Safety Net
November 27, 2016 President-elect Trump has promised to repeal Obamacare but thus far has been vague about alternatives. Rather than tinker with the system, Mr. Trump should boldly propose that all Americans have a Universal Health Safety Net that protects individuals and families from huge health care bills while lowering premiums for the middle class and working poor. The most straight-forward solution is to provide every American with government-backed catastrophic health insurance. Because of technological advances, bureaucratic mandates and an out-of-control legal system, the average annual health care costs according to the actuarial firm Milliman, Inc. is $24,671 a year for a family of four. Those who are not self-employed pay $10,473 out-of-pocket while the employee pays the balance. Middle class wages have been stagnant for over two decades and now average $53,657 a year. When the employee contribution is included, many workers are paying almost 30% of their wages for health care. Providing a Universal Safety Net does not require a new government program. It already exists. It is called Medicare – a plan that protects our elderly and … [Read more...]
ObamaCare – Poor Health Care Policy but Political Ingenuity
November 29, 2015 Detractors of ObamaCare are forever reciting the program’s failings: unworkable web sites, skyrocketing premiums, endless cost overruns, silly bureaucratic mandates, useless medical record requirements, bankrupt insurance co-ops along with the random cancellations of perfectly fine policies. They like to recount one of President Obama’s most famous mendacious declarations: “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.” This is because these detractors assume that the purpose of ObamaCare is to provide health insurance. It is not. The purpose of ObamaCare is threefold: Redistribute wealth, increase the number of baseline Democrats and enrich wealthy contributors. Once this is understood, it becomes obvious that not only is ObamaCare a huge success; it is political genius. Let’s look at these points individually. 1. Redistribute Wealth. The President and his minions tacked on several taxes to finance ObamaCare, mostly on the upper middle class. Married couples who file jointly with incomes exceeding $250,000 annually ($200,000 if you are single) have to pay another 0.9% income tax and 3.8% on interest income and capital gains. While these … [Read more...]