As President Obama continues to garner support for his healthcare reform plan, ScienceBloggers are also taking a look at the issues in play. Peter Lipson of White Coat Underground investigates the perception that centralized, salary-based medicine is more efficient than a system based on private practice. Revere of Effect Measure discusses the dangerous tendency to eliminate all reserve capacity--spare hospital beds--in order to cut costs. Mike the Mad Biologist argues against what he calls a mislabeled "centrist" position on reform. And Razib of Gene Expression presents a glimpse of what healthcare was like under Turkmenistan's notorious dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov.
- What we have here on White Coat Underground
- Thinking about hospital surge on Effect Measure
- When Compulsive Centrist Disorder Isn't Centrist: The Healthcare Edition on Mike the Mad Biologist
- Healthcare under an insane dictator on Gene Expression
More like this
Now that the Democrats have taken both houses of Congress, there will be loud calls for them to govern from center. This silliness will be promulgated by the likes of David Broder and other Mainstream Media Mandarins who suffer from Complusive Centrist Disorder.
In the battle of ideas, what things are called matters (e.g., the 'death tax' instead of the estate tax).
Katrina vanden Heuvel makes a good point about some bad framing in the healthcare debate--the 'centrists' aren't in the center at all:
Quelle surprise. David Brook's recent burbling, "Getting Obama Right", seems to have garnered a lot of attention, to the point where several people sent it to me (approvingly, which is puzzling).