Healthcare Dysincentives: Who is left holding the bag?
Holding the Bag (hōl’dĭng thə băg) N. Abandon someone, force someone to bear the responsibility or blame. This idiom grew out of the earlier give one the bag (to hold), which dates from about 1600 and alludes to being left with an empty bag while others have taken the valuable contents. I grow weary of […]
True Insurance: Removing the Moral Hazard
True (trū) adj. 1. Consistent with fact or reality; not false or erroneous 2. Real; genuine, rightful; legitimate, fundamental, or essential 3. Accurately shaped or fitted and conforms to rule, standard or pattern I recently came across an article so good that I thought it should be republished in its entirety. The article was written […]
First Party Financing – Lets Get Real About Health Care
Financing (fə-năns’) v. To provide or raise the funds or capital for: financed a new car. To supply funds to: financing a daughter through law school. To furnish credit to. The crisis that is American health care continues to get bad news. However, in a lame duck year, everyone realizes that not much is going […]
Covering Your Asset: The Body Shop Insurance Company
Asset (ăs‘ĕt‘) n. A useful or valuable quality, person, or thing; an advantage or resource. A tangible or intangible item that can be applied to cover liabilities of a person or a business (cash, stock, inventory, rights, or goodwill). I have previously made the argument that our personal health status should be considered a form […]
Overtreated and Underinformed: Too Much Medicine, Not Enough Evidence
Overtreated (ō’vər trēt ĭd) n. The act, manner, or method of handling or dealing with someone or something. Administration or application of remedies to a patient or for a disease or injury; medicinal or surgical management; therapy The substance or remedy so applied. Over the holidays, I was able to read a raft of some […]
Back in the Saddle and Ready to Ride
Entrepreneur (ŏn‘trə-prə-nûr’) n. 1. A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture. 2. An individual who, rather than working as an employee, runs a small business and assumes all the risk and reward of a given business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. 3. Business leader and […]
Employer-Based Insurance: “Hasta La Vista, Baby!”
Hasta La Vista (äs′tä lä vēs′tä) n. 1. Spanish for “See you later” or “So Long” 2. Healthcare for the provision of “Employer Based Insurance” I can distinctly recall the moment I first heard these now famous words in the 1991 Summer Blockbuster, Terminator II. John Conner was trying to teach the outdated Terminato