Health Affairs

In interviews with Health Affairs, government ministers in Germany and the Netherlands talk up market-oriented refinements to their universal health insurance systems for the future. But the news from Europe isn’t all happy: an unsettling survey in the United Kingdom finds that some physicians believe that the market will unravel the government-owned and -operated National... Read the rest of this entry »

Besides short-term budgetary or political advantage, what considerations enter into policy pronouncements made by health care decisionmakers? Does history enter into it? And do they really ask themselves if what they know to be true actually has a factual basis? A recent paper posted on the British History & Policy web site considers this question... Read the rest of this entry »

The rising prevalence of obesity is said to be threatening to drown the health care system under a wave of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. So some policymakers have suggested taxing foods high in saturated fats as a way to steer consumers clear of snacks that are bad for them and perhaps offset coming health care... Read the rest of this entry »

Tuberculosis is being a seen as a greater threat to world health now than at any time in the past half-century. The symbiosis of HIV/AIDS with TB in Africa, along with the emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively drug restistant TB (XDR-TB) have only heightened concerns in developing countries. Even in a developed country such... Read the rest of this entry »

What happens when a government agency in charge of assessing the effectiveness of medical interventions crunches numbers and tells pharmaceutical companies their drugs are just too expensive? Sometimes, the government gets a better deal. Twice last week, the much-feared National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England and Wales was a factor in... Read the rest of this entry »

The spread of convenience clinics—or “McClinics”—has been debated across the health care blogosphere in recent weeks, stemming in part from Wal-Mart’s announcement that it plans to open hundreds in coming years. Yesterday, the subject was the question of the day on the Wall Street Journal’s health blog (sparked by a Journal op-ed by Grace-Marie Turner, president... Read the rest of this entry »

Should doctors encourage patients to use a product that increases their chances of developing pancreatic cancer? Should public health agencies? This is a question that could confront the medical establishment if the Swedish moist smokeless tobacco known as “snus” becomes popular in the United States (and if the tobacco companies push the European Union to... Read the rest of this entry »