Health and Social Policy

Marcus Welby was a myth; doctors have always cared about money. But the for-profit managed care industry makes no pretense: It’s offering physicians money to make decisions that are plainly not in the interests of patients.

“Bowling alone” may not only be hazardous to the body politic. It may also be dangerous for the body. Why social cohesion has survival value.

As provision of care for the sick and the elderly moves from the domestic sphere to the public realm and the market, caregivers often find themselves in the role of bedside bureaucrats.

Turning Medicare into a voucher program would make it a dwindling basis of security in old age.

VIAGRAVATED ASSAULT Early demand for Viagra, the new potency pill from Pfizer, has been so enormous that it has caused worries about an unexpected rise in health care expenses. Newspapers have reported the weekly sales of Viagra the way they earlier reported the gross for Titanic. In April one urologist was quoted by the Washington […]

Max J. Skidmore’s Social Security and Its Enemies: The Case for America’s Most Efficient Insurance Program 12.02.99 | reviewed by Erik Cole One of the most remarkable items unearthed by Max J. Skidmore in Social Security and Its Enemies: The Case for America’s Most Efficient Insurance Program is a set of radio ads made for […]

The current tax treatment of health benefits makes no sense. A feasible strategy for health reform should now put tax reform at its center. But which kind?

Republicans killed it. The White House strategy misfired. Reformers couldn’t unite. The center failed. And the moment was lost.