Volume 75, no. 11 November 2019 The federal government has been declaring war on waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare since shortly after it was enacted in 1965. In the 1970s, there was the Professional Standards Review Organization (PSRO). AAPS v. Weinberger, the first lawsuit filed by AAPS, which challenged the PSRO, was dismissed in […]
Volume 75, no. 10 October 2019 In proposing “Medicare for All,” Bernie Sanders and his followers suggest that all Americans will be brought into a popular, successful, functioning program that provides well for seniors. In fact, the bill that Sanders claims to have written abolishes the current Medicare program, forces everyone into a very different […]
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 […]