Volume 75, no. 9 Dr. Robot is visiting patients in some places but could be displaced by Dr. Alexa, the virtual assistant in Amazon smart speakers, who is already able to perform certain health-related tasks. “She” can track blood glucose levels, describe symptoms, access post-surgical care instructions, monitor home prescription deliveries, and make appointments at […]
Politicians who are reluctant to immediately go all the way to a complete government takeover of medicine propose the incremental strategy of a “buy-in” to a “public option.” Public programs predictably crowd out private ones. It is easy for government to drive out competition by imposing a regulatory load too costly for would-be market participants […]
Volume 75, no. 7 July 2019 While “population control” is generally taken to mean preventing overpopulation, it also means subjugating, regulating, and controlling the behavior and thoughts of the people. And the two goals often overlap. The sensational 1968 book The Population Bomb by entomologist Paul Ehrlich, called the first end-of-the world book, predicted that […]
Volume 75, no. 6 June 2019 Litigation challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has focused on the Commerce Clause and on religious liberty. Litigants and Justices have asked, “What is a tax?”, “Can we be forced to buy broccoli?”, or “Should nuns have to pay for contraceptives?” In its amicus brief before […]
Volume 75, no. 5 May 2019 How many times have you heard, from organized medicine, that the “train has left the station,” and you need to be on board, or that the train of socialized medicine is unstoppable? Fans of old Western movies know that trains were stopped in many ways. Recently, the 2010 action/thriller […]
Volume 75, no. 4 At first, the great transition looked academic and boring. In the late 1970s, protocols for the evaluation and management of the most common presenting complaints at the Tucson Veterans Administration Medical Center’s walk-in clinic were branched-chain algorithms in little spiral-bound books, meant for nurse practitioners. Each of the 12 had its […]
Volume 75, no. 3 March 2019 Our Founders put the First Amendment first because without free speech there is no liberty. Without apparently unanimous support, tyranny is threatened. Dissent must be silenced. In medicine, informed consent is a bedrock ethical principle, reinforced by the Nuremberg Code (AAPS News, November 2012). But how can there be […]
The managed-care method for controlling the use of expensive pharmaceuticals is to insist that the patient use the formulary drug first, then ask for authorization for a different one if the first (or second or third) drug fails. Failure may involve having a seizure or asthma attack. Wisconsin is proposing standards for requiring such “step […]
Volume 75, no. 1 January 2019 That the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional is simply a fact, as AAPS argued in the lawsuit it filed days after ACA was enacted in 2010 (AAPS v. Sebelius) and in numerous amicus briefs (see archives at aapsonline.org/category/obamacare/). The newsworthy development is the decision by Judge Reed O’Connor […]
The clearest winner in the 2018 midterms was Medicaid. Voters in Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid, making 363,000 more people eligible for the program next year. With Democrats winning the governorship in Wisconsin and Kansas, these two states, which have resisted the expansion, may become more open to it. In […]