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Above the Fold

Until the middle class truly cares, forget about health reform

Jun 9, 2008• 9

By THCB Staff

Regular THCB contributor Michael Millenson published an op-ed piece in Sunday’s Washington Post, in which he says that until health insurance truly becomes an issue of the white middle-class, politically, nothing will happen.

Michael’s words:

"Here’s a cold truth: Despite much media hand-wringing on the subject, most of us give about as much thought to those who lack health coverage as we do to soybean subsidies.The major obstacle to change? Those of us with insurance simply don’t care very much about those without it. It’s only when health care costs spike sharply, the economy totters or private employers begin to cut back on benefits that the lack of universal health care comes into focus. Noticing the steadily growing ranks of the uninsured, the broad American public — ‘us’ — begins to worry that we’ll soon be joining the ranks of ‘them.’"

"The responses I’ve gotten by putting my personal email on the page have certainly been … educational," Michael told us. You won’t get his personal email here — you’ll have to visit the Post for that.

The Long Baby Boom

Jun 8, 2008

By Matthew Holt

Last Friday I had a great chat with healthcare futurist Jeff Goldsmith about his new book, the Long Baby Boom. We discussed the policy and cultural issues of retirement, Medicare, Social Security, immigration, end-of-life care and meaning in work. With 76 million baby boomers heading towards age 65, these issues or of great importance.

Here’s the interview.

Optimism about the baby boomers

Jun 8, 2008• 1

By Jeff Goldsmith Ijeff

Jeff Goldsmith is President of Health Futures, Inc, and a professor of public health sciences at the University of Virginia. His new book, "The Long Baby Boom: An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation," will be released shortly, and Johns Hopkins University Press granted THCB permission to print the introduction in full.

Fresh from liberating the world from the Axis powers, America’s Greatest Generation came home from World War II and brought forth a baby boom. Seventy-six million children emerged from this remarkable postwar celebration, almost four children per family. American society has not been the same since.

The baby boom increased the U.S. population 44 percent in just eighteen years! American society had to re-create itself to accommodate the new arrivals. Each social institution the baby boomers touched, from elementary schools to university to the family and the work world, they fundamentally reshaped, not only by the press of their sheer numbers but also by their unique, high-maintenance approach to the world. At each turn in their lives, baby boomers have torn up the script and started afresh.

Today, the advance guard of this generation’s legions is within four years of reaching a bristling societal Maginot Line: age 65. According to many pundits and forecasters, the aging baby boom threatens the U.S. economic future.

How the mainstream media hypes health news

Jun 7, 2008• 3

By Maggie Mahar

“False Hopes, Unwarranted Fears: The Trouble with Medical News Stories.” If you find the headline alarming, you should read the editorial, published just last week in PLoS Medicine. There, the journal’s editors summarize what the Health News Review has discovered over the past two years while evaluating medical stories about new products and procedures throughout the mainstream media.

“It’s not a pretty picture,” says Gary Schwitzer, the University of Minnesota School of Journalism professor who publishes the online project.

Hyping health stories: journalists need to do better

Jun 7, 2008• 1

By Sarah Arnquist

Health care journalists got some bad press last week following the release of a study that showed more often than not they fail to provide the necessary information to make health stories complete, meaningful and tell them in context.

I’m torn. I want to defend journalists who report on this incredibly complex beat and continue ripping on them. So I’ll do a little of both.

The key finding from University of Minnesota Journalism professor Gary Schwitzer’s study published in PLoS Medicine Journal was that “after almost two years and 500 stories, the project has found that journalists usually fail to discuss costs, the quality of the evidence, the existence of alternative options, and the absolute magnitude of potential benefits and harms.”

A veteran CNN health reporter, Schwitzer founded the Web site HealthNewsReview.org to grade health news stories. The study is based on those reviews. I interviewed Schwitzer when the site launched. Gary also wrote a post for THCB that talks a little bit about what his project hopes to achieve.

Brian May, PhD

Jun 7, 2008• 1

By Matthew Holt

My favorite rock guitarist of all time, Brian May never quite finished his PhD in Astronomy before going off and becoming a big star with Queen. But this year, he finally did. Here’s an interview with him in the Los Angeles Times.

But for pure enjoyment, here’s 9 minutes of him rocking out at Wembley in 1986. (I’m in the audience somewhere). Think about the complexity of playing everything once and hearing it three times…amazing.

Stupid cancer: Young cancer survivors find a voice of their own

Jun 6, 2008• 1

By Matthew Zachary

Matthew Zachary, the founder of I’m too Young For This community and
advocacy web site for young cancer survivors, is no stranger to THCB or Health 2.0, but he has never before told us his story at length. So here it is. Also, Zachary wants to invite survivors, friends and family to join him for i[2]y’s 2nd Annual Stupid Cancer Gala complete with complimentary cocktails, door prizes, DJ survivors and special guests! Come one come all. Stupid cancer! Go here for tickets and more information, visit . Discount web-only ticket prices and sponsorships still available.

Whether for good or for bad, I remember it all too well. December 27th, 1995.

Al Gore had just barely invented the Internet, movie trailers for Independence Day shocked people to the core and we were all making fun of Bob Dole as he tried to become president with his codgery monotone.

I was 21 and six months away from my College graduation en route to film school with ambitions to become the next John Williams. I’d been classically trained for over 10 years with a romp through Jazz, new age, electronica and pop/rock. I wanted nothing more than to be creative and write music for film and television.

But first, something had to explain why my speech was slurring, why I kept fainting uncontrollably, why I had crippling headaches and – most importantly – why my left hand, my dominant hand, had lost all of it’s fine motor coordination, rendering me unable to sit at the piano and play, grip a pen or type on the computer.

Google Health — A serious test drive

Jun 5, 2008• 9

By Matthew Holt

After all the fuss, I thought that I should take Google Health for a real test drive. So I did. Given that it contains a gazillion screenshots, I did it in the form of a slide show and uploaded it to the slideshare.net website. To view it, you’re best off using the full screen mode (which you can get to by opening “view” (the middle of the three links below the slides, and then clicking the “full button” on the bottom right in the slide on slideshare).

| View | Upload your own

I’d of course love your comments about my conclusions.

Consumer Reports on Health: Worse Than Average

Jun 4, 2008• 9

By MICHAEL MILLENSON

Maybe no one at Consumer Reports has a mother.

The first rule of effective consumer information is “tell it to Mom.” That is, explain why something is important in the kind of language you would use when speaking to your mother. Unfortunately, the folks at Consumers Union have now, for the second time, put out purportedly pro-consumer health care information that no one’s mother could love. Their latest offering is at best mildly helpful and at worst seriously misleading. The only explanation I can think of is that the CU folks believe so firmly in their own good intentions that they ignore the impact of what they are actually doing.

Obama’s health plan may promise less but accomplish more

Jun 4, 2008• 11

By Diana Dutton & Hal Holman

Hal Holman is a professor of Medicine at Stanford University, and Diana Dutton is a research fellow at the London School of Economics and a former director of health services research at Stanford. The married couple supports Obama.

Obama
Many people think Hillary Clinton has a better health plan than Barack Obama. She repeatedly tells voters her plan will cover everybody, while Obama’s will leave out 15 million people. Newly emerging data tell a different story.

Since 2006, Massachusetts has been running what amounts to a pilot test of Clinton’s universal mandate plan, requiring all uninsured residents to buy private insurance or be penalized. The state regulates participating insurers and subsidizes costs for lower-income people. Yet after two years, nearly half of the uninsured still aren’t covered, despite strenuous outreach. To boost enrollment, Massachusetts has stiffened fines – up to several thousand dollars. Nevertheless, many people remain uninsured, citing more pressing needs. Clinton insists her mandate wouldn’t force people to buy insurance they can’t afford, but that’s exactly what’s happening in Massachusetts. The state has had to exempt 20 percent of the uninsured because they couldn’t afford even subsidized premiums.

Clinton’s plan would also likely fall far short of universal coverage. She hasn’t said how her mandate would be enforced, but has mentioned the possibility of garnishing wages. Without affordable insurance, a universal mandate means little.