In their panic to author health care legislation, Congress left cost containment on the cloakroom floor.  If the actual premiums, provider payments, related federal and state spending and subsidies had been calmly publicized before voting in 2010, prudent legislators would have tabled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care bill (ACA). As we approach 2014, few [...]

Last week, the Senate voted to repeal a controversial tax found within the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The tax was a 2.3% levy on medical devices, which, once in effect, is expected to generate almost $30 billion in tax dollars. The tax would hit nearly every medical device imaginable—pacemakers, syringes, CT scanning machines, and [...]

CVS recently adopted a wellness review as prerequisite for employee healthcare coverage.  If the employee refuses to reveal weight, height, age and other health indicators to the health insurer, health insurance can still be had – but at a $600 penalty.  Employer arm twisting on health insurance has been common for a decade – especially [...]

Doctors make mistakes.  There are misdiagnoses and inappropriate treatments in 15% of patient illnesses, which results in almost 100,000 deaths each year.  With yearly health care costs nearing $2.5 trillion, the 15% error rate suggests up to $375 billion may be spent in inappropriate treatments.        Doctors don’t understand medicine perfectly and they cannot predict all [...]

For many years, the Internet was expected to help consumers manage their health.   A Pew Foundation survey documents effectiveness by the 35% of consumers who used the Internet for medical self-diagnosis and follow up.   After self-diagnosis, 38% of “diagnosers” felt they could handle the condition at home, but 46% were felt they needed to talk [...]

Do you want to have more control over your health?  Monitor it.  By collecting vital status on your health – heart rate, activity and other measures – you can set goals and track your successes.  There are now so many devices to help you do this, there is no excuse for not trying. For about [...]

Within the framework of its not-quite-yet single payer plan, government has created taxes and fines to punish all health care providers and all consumers who are not yet covered under a government plan.  We can start with the treatment of health care providers.   At just 1.5% increase per year, physicians are not the cause of [...]

American workers expect to work longer than they used to — 27% say they’ll retire at age 70 or higher and 7% say they’ll never retire.    They also voice jitters over retirement income and expect to rely on several sources during retirement:  56% expect to have a traditional (defined benefit) pension; 72% expect to use [...]

Fears of groundwater depletion have led to some desperate plans.  The Biscayne aquifer serves millions in Florida, but it is rapidly depleting.  Pembrooke Pines planned to accelerate Biscayne’s replenishment by injecting treated sewage deep into the aquifer instead of the traditional approach which allows treated sewage to trickle from wetlands, lakes and fields into the [...]

Each day, groundwater provides drinking water for half of U.S. consumers and another 50 billion gallons for agriculture.  Other U.S. industries also rely on groundwater.  Unfortunately we take more of this clean low cost water than we put back.  The supply is dwindling and since we cannot do without massive quantities of clean water, we [...]