a brief update

[psongster]

A couple weeks ago I went to a conference co-sponsored by the Concord Coalition and the New England Economic Partnership. It was partly an economic forecast for New England (that part was on the front page of the Globe the next morning) and partly a discussion of the federal deficit and its likely impact and possible solutions. I was amused to be

Comments

[ams16]

How do we solve health care inflation without introducing some type of rationing (i.e., "Death panels")? I don't know the answer, but it's an important question.

[psongster]

Oh yes, it's a vitally important question, and I don't know the answers either. (One piece is getting hospitals to use the check-lists that greatly reduce error rates and hospital acquired infections, but that's just one piece.)

As for "death panels" -- you do know, don't you, that the furor was about paying doctors when they talk with patients and/or families about end-of-life care? My aunt recently had such a conversation with her mother's PCP about 24 hours before her mother died, which she found enormously helpful in understanding what was going on and what the options were. But the PCP can't be paid for that, because there was no "treatment" involved.

[psongster]

Still working on a name. In the process I've splurged many a $15 on domain names that aren't quite right.