Apparently there some kind of experimental clinical innovation going on in the UK. If this isn’t a typo from
the Torygraph, how is the mental model of the free-marketeers going to survive? I suspect that Gratzer, Giuliani, Kling & the rest had better join Michael in taking a seat. Yup, communism can mean innovation, (after all who won World War II)?
Meanwhile there is a little more news on the topic of Cato (Michael’s employer). First, they created some economic stimulus of their own Monday, with a one page ad in the WSJ opposing the economic stimulus package.
But they haven’t been listening to Robert Reich and the others suggesting that we get money into the hands of the poor to create more immediate economic impact, or at least they weren’t paying attention when they gave their cash to Rupert Murdoch. Perhaps they should have put it in Street Sheet instead!
On a slightly more serious note, Cannon & Kling kindly sent me by actual snail mail their new article called Does the Doctor Need a Boss in which they argue in favor of coordinated care management (from somebody!) and point out that it’s prepaid group practices (e.g. Kaiser) who come closest to the model. They also call for the dismantling of professional guild protections. I’m totally with them on both issues (and am even happier that they made Greg Scandlen call them “disgusting” although I can’t find Scandlen’s actual quote online).
But it’s a little rich of the libertarian right to start claiming as their own things like integrated care systems, prepaid care, disease management and the like. This is really veering into the through the looking glass, Grace-Marie Turner, territory. If, as these guys all claim, you gave people actual cash to spend on their individual health care spending there would be no chance of these large quasi-social insurance systems like Kaiser and the VA surviving—and Michael knows why (even if Grace Marie remains mathematically challenged). And of course almost all innovations in these areas come in models that have nothing to do with the consumer directed & financed care these guys espouse. If you listen to the leaders of those organizations they’d like the cream-skimmers to go away.
Categories: Uncategorized
