health wonk review

Welcome To Health Wonk Review – 1/09/09

Jan 9, 2009• 14

By BRIAN KLEPPER

Well, here we are at the beginning of 2009. On TV we’ve learned that the unlimited spending and brilliant, if socially pathological, heroics of Dr. Gregory House, unfailingly saves his patients from unknowable complexity and the abyss of death.

Meanwhile, the rest of health care, aided largely by really excellent lobbying, continues to be buoyed, defying the relentlessly corrosive gravitational pull of waste, corruption, and a tanking economy.

Still, health care’s troops are beginning to feel, in Tom Lehrer’s words, like a Christian Scientist with an appendicitis. Things definitely are not going well, and this longstanding run of great good fortune could be on the downswing. Is it possible that exorbitant pricing and massive waste are NOT entitlements!

Which brings us to the far-ranging insights, jabs, diatribes, rants and enthusiasms of this edition of Health Wonk Review, which features analysis and exegesis as entertainment.

Health Wonk Review Is Up!

Nov 13, 2008

Check it out over at Colorado Health Insurance Insider. Thanks to Louise for compiling!

Oct 16, 2008

It’s up over at Managed Care Matters. In compiling this edition, Joe Paduda wrote, "This is perhaps the most serious, thought-provoking edition of
HWR I’ve had the honor of hosting. There’s a lot of meat here, so don’t
expect to multi-task your way through.

Health Wonk Review – 4/3/08

Apr 3, 2008• 4

By Brian Klepper

HWR has clearly arrived, at least in the sense that all KINDS of
columnists are clamoring to be read here. More than thirty submissions
arrived in my inbox, a collection of the utilitarian, the thoughtful
and sometimes the downright ridiculous. Given only so much space for an anthology, I set aside more
than a few. Some were simply plugs, or not directly relevant to a blog focused on
health policy and market dynamics. Others were merely good.

But the twenty remaining posts were, I thought, exceptional
contributions from writers who continually plug away, asking themselves, “What
really matters and how can I talk about it?” As ever, you’ll find a
potpourri here of expert observation, analysis and commentary from
every part of health care. It’ll take a little effort wading through
it, but I promise you an illuminating and entertaining time.

Ah, a warning. One of these posts is for April Fools. Keep your eye out!

On to The Review! Enjoy!