Month: February 2016

Perspective For All (It’s Free!)

perspective

Sometimes perspective is helpful.

Even when given just a little bit of it.

Presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has recently released his “Medicare-for-All” plan. Similar to his make college education free plan, there are a number of things admirable about it. No healthcare deductibles. No co-pays. No fighting with insurance companies. We all get, seemingly for “free,” whatever the government thinks we need.

And, I get it. In 4th-grade, I once ran for student council touting a “No Homework For All! slogan. I’m not even saying this is the same strategy being used by Sen. Sanders. Instead, I’m just trying to imagine the ideal:

A world where all of us have (1) the healthcare we need, (2) when we need it, (3) at the most reasonable cost to all of us, collectively.

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Less-is-More… for Tortillas

taqueria

There is a single CT scanner in town.

A certain number of scans are done with it each month.

Suddenly, a second scanner is installed at a new location across town.

True or False:

The total number of CT scans being performed will remain the same with two scanners now available.

The answer is false… at least within our current system. Someone has studied it. Adding another scanner increases the utilization of scanning.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Careful, now. It’s an entirely different question. The answer, of course, is maybe, or maybe not. You need more information.

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