The proponents of a state constitutional amendment to establish an individual right to comprehensive health insurance, enforceable against the Commonwealth, have clearly given a lot of thought to the problems […]
Counterpoint
Posted inHealth Care
Argument
It’s almost a cliché: The Massachusetts health care system is in crisis. Every stakeholder is unhappy. It is not a crisis of technology—new drugs, machines, and methods abound, so that, […]
Posted inHealth Care
On racial disparities, biggest gap is between talk and accountability
INTRO TEXT That there are big racial disparities in health care no one disputes. Blacks are less likely than whites to undergo bypass surgery. The time between an abnormal mammogram […]
Posted inHealth Care
Is fraud a hidden factor in the rise of health costs?
INTRO TEXT In the preface to the first edition of his 1996 book License to Steal: Why Fraud Plagues America’s Health Care System, Malcolm Sparrow states that of all the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Boston’s Tom Menino walks the walk on health policy
INTRO TEXT When John Auerbach was in charge of the state Department of Public Health’s AIDS program in the 1980s, Larry Kessler, the director of the nonprofit AIDS Action Committee, […]
Posted inHealth Care
First, do some good is the motto at this Berkshire agency
INTRO TEXT When Fran Alibozek of Adams learned she had colon cancer three years ago, she didn’t know which was more frightening, the fight she had ahead of her or […]
Posted inHealth Care
Needle bleaching makes clinic a sticking point in Fitchburg
INTRO TEXT With an influx of millions of dollars in state funding, a plan to revitalize Fitchburg’s sleepy downtown is in place. The urban renewal money is helping to build […]
Posted inHealth Care
Unmanaged care
LAST SUMMER, AFTER 17 years as CEO of Tufts Health Plan, Harris Berman traded in the rough-and-tumble life of an HMO executive for the quieter confines of academia. But as […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Understanding Medicaid
When Christine St. Pierre was diagnosed a few years ago with diabetes, her doctor suggested it was time to give up living on her own. After all, she had already […]
Posted inHealth Care
Supply and Demands
Sitting on a Brighton hilltop like a fortress against disease, the beige brick edifice of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital stands out against the gray March sky. The driveway, which carves a […]
Posted inHealth Care
Being Ron Preston
It’s an early Thursday morning in mid-March, and 11 floors below Ron Preston’s Ashburton Place office a group of Latino and black teenagers holding signs that read marriage = 1 […]
Posted inHealth Care
To your health
Health care is the elephant in the room. For individuals, nothing is more intensely personal, more urgent, and more closely linked to self-esteem and dignity than the ability to get […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care
Anticipation and anxiety in our health care economy
When the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce installed Dr. James Mongan, president and chief executive of Partners HealthCare, as chairman of the board in May, the symbolism did not go […]
Posted inUncategorized
How the marketing beast is taking away childhood in America
Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of ChildhoodBy Susan LinnNew York, New Press, 304 pages. In 1984, the Reagan administration deregulated advertising on children’s television, allowing networks to create programming for […]
Posted inHealth Care
A century of healthy bestsellers the skinny on childbirth trends east versus west in the Bay State emulating Popeye stress and depression in Boston and New Bedford
Big sales for light readsIn any given week, as many as half of the nonfiction bestsellers in the US are health-related–with diet books the most common subgenre. That wasn’t always […]
Posted inEducation, Health Care
Insurance coverage in the workplace the spread of community health care centers college education and exercise heart disease cancer and asthma rates
Under coverage Massachusetts has one of the lowest percentages of people without health insurance, but it might do even better if more private employers picked up the tab. According to […]
Posted inHealth Care
Scare stories about health issues leave us worse for the wear
Several days after the first mad cow was found in America, when the fresh news was gone and the follow-up stories started, the Wall Street Journal carried an article headlined […]
Posted inHealth Care
Its Maines turn to try being the first state with health coverage for everyone
There is an old Yankee expression: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” A corollary might be: “If it is broke, fix it right.” There’s not much doubt that the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Bed scores
Unlike Dunkin’ Donuts outlets, hospitals don’t necessarily mirror population trends. According to the most current figures provided by Bay State hospitals to the American Hospital Directory, staffed beds are relatively […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Bay State is falling behind in targeted research dollars
It is no secret that Massachusetts, with its powerhouse universities and academic medical centers, gets more than its share of federal funding for scientific and medical research. The Bay State […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Civil service hiring rules promote mediocrity among public safety workers
There is a public safety crisis in Massachusetts, a crisis of our own making. The quality of our workforce is not what it should be, and it’s our own fault. […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
We may be tucked away in West Cambridge, but Sky & Telescope is the oldest, most successful consumer astronomy magazine on the planet! But surprisingly, there was no mention of […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Sociologist Thomas Shapiro says that a lack of assets, not income, is holding African-Americans back
On the issue of economic inequality, Americans are of two minds. On the one hand, we value opportunity over security, balancing a meager safety net (compared with other developed countries) […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
The state budget should focus on outcomes not allocations
Since 2001, Gov. Mitt Romney and the Legislature have cut spending by almost $3 billion. While also raising taxes and fees, the state has reduced Medicaid services, eliminated health insurance […]