I’ve heard people criticize doctors for not counseling their patients more about the benefits of diet and exercise. Yet, I’m not convinced most patients don’t already know they’re out of shape. After all, the patients in question are the ones who buy their clothing and perhaps comprehend their clothing sizes are double-digit numbers. I’ve asked a doctor I know if he ever has to just be blunt with a patient. He said yes, belatedly telling one patient, “you didn’t get this way overnight.”
Medical Care Credit Cards Benefit Patients and Providers
My wife’s former hair stylist was an immigrant struggling with the loss of income after the Covid lockdown. One day the stylist explained she needed eye surgery she could not afford. My wife told her about CareCredit, a company that provides consumer credit for medical care and veterinary care. The next time they met the stylist thanked her. She had scheduled her eye surgery after getting approved by CareCredit. The stylist said she would have up to a year to pay off her surgery interest free.
The anecdote may sound like a story with a happy ending but not according to Senator Elizabeth Warren and some of her Democratic colleagues.
Monday Links
- 93% of cancer centers report a shortage of carboplatin and 70% report shortages for cisplatin.
- Up to 500,000 U.S. cancer patients could be at risk of having their treatment disrupted. (WSJ)
- WHO is about to declare that Aspartame, a common artificial sweetener, is “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The back and forth on this issue never seems to end.
- Expected lifetime out-of-pocket spending by Medicare enrollees: $157,500 (Fidelity) to $197,000 (Employee Benefit Research Institute). (NYT)
- A single year with a grossly ineffective teacher can cost a classroom of students $1.4 million in lifetime earnings. Yet it can take 10 years and $250,000 to $450,000 to fire a lousy California teacher, and fewer than 0.002% are dismissed for unprofessional conduct or poor performance. (WSJ)
What the Medical Schools Get Wrong About Affirmative Action
It took no time at all for establishment medicine to react to the Supreme Court ruling that race-based admissions were unconstitutional. “Today’s decision demonstrates a lack of understanding of the critical benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in educational settings and a failure to recognize the urgent need to address health inequities in our country,” said a statement Association of American Medical Colleges. “We need more health workers, especially those who look like and share the experiences of the people they serve,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
See Medical Schools Denounce Affirmative Action Ruling