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Why It Is So Difficult to Kill the Death Panel Myth
In August of 2009, Sarah Palin claimed that the health legislation being crafted by Democrats at the time would create a “death panel,” in which government bureaucrats would decide whether disabled and...
View ArticleOffensive Statements about Progressives from David Brooks of the New York Times
David Brooks is a pretty solidly moderate conservative, and one who is a big fan of behavioral science. But that doesn’t mean he can see beyond his own biases, especially when describing the...
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What Made Our Greatest Surgeon General So Great
I have been thinking a lot about C Everett Koop lately, ever since his death on February 25 at the ripe old age of 96 and more recently with the announcement that our current Surgeon General, Regina...
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Malpractice Claims Feel Endless Because…They Are!
I am very fortunate to have never been sued. That is not necessarily because of my amazing ability as a physician. I always practiced in Veterans Affairs medical centers, where my status as a federal...
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How Screwed Up Does Health Care Need to Get Before We’ll Fix It?
“We need to be screwed!” Not altogether surprising words to spill out of a college student’s mouth. But this particular student was not talking about sex. She was discussing the U.S. health-care...
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Why We Need More Twelve-Year-Olds Teaching Health Policy
I come from an ardent Republican family. Suspicion of government, you could say, runs in my genes. No surprise then that the first time my parents and siblings heard about Obama’s individual health...
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Broken Democracy
Until recently, the state of North Carolina, where I live, was a bastion of political moderation, especially compared to our neighbors in the southeast. Our politics were moderate in part because the...
View ArticleHas Obamacare Made Restaurants Partisan?
Politics in the US is discouragingly partisan. National politics has become increasingly partisan since at least the late ’60s, when the passage of civil rights legislation influenced many conservative...
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Do People on the Right Feel Superior to Those on the Left?
Most of us have at least one cranky old relative who not only has stronger opinions than the rest of us, but is also convinced that those opinions are superior to ours. Not just content to believe...
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How To Trick People Into Caring About Healthcare
In health policy circles (yes, those exist!), experts often refer to three aims for a modern healthcare system – to offer (1) universal access to (2) high quality medical care at (3) an affordable...
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Moderate Politicans: No Reason to Run for Office
A while back, my friend and colleague Brendan Nyhan sent out a disturbing picture showing that moderate politicians, from both the Democratic and Republican parties, are less likely to run for seats...
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Why We Cannot Trust Political Pundits, or Ourselves
Take a look at the image below and decide what you are seeing: Some of you might have seen a “B.” Others might have seen the number 13. The image, after all, is ambiguous. For that reason, in fact, it...
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What Jonathan Gruber Didn’t Say About Obamacare
Jonathan Gruber went from unknown to infamous in the last few weeks, a result of disparaging comments he made about the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and even more disparaging ones he made about...
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Does the Name “the Affordable Care Act” Bias People Against the Affordable...
The always informative Jonathan Cohn at the New Republic recently wrote about an opinion poll that seems to show significant support for at least one part of The Affordable Care Act. It showed a...
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Should North Carolina Expand Medicaid?
My home state of North Carolina is one of a number of states that refused to expand Medicaid, even though the Affordable Care Act stipulates that the federal government will cover the majority of...
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How Do Scientists’ Beliefs Differ from Those of Laypeople?
Do you think it is safe to eat genetically modified foods? I do, because I believe that most foods we eat have been genetically modified. Cows wouldn’t be cows if humans hadn’t changed them...
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Polarized Views on Science
Sometimes when I disagree with friends or family about contentious issues, and they accuse me of being partisan, I try to defend myself by explaining that I am basing my position on science, not...
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Disliking Obamacare despite Benefiting from It
No surprise to learn that the majority of Republicans dislike Obamacare. But did you know that the majority of Republicans, who SIGNED UP FOR INSURANCE through Obamacare, still dislike the law? That’s...
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What Gives Republicans Faith in Government?
President Ronald Reagan was famous for espousing anti-government views. To this day, he is lionized by Republicans, who frequently quote his “less is more” attitudes towards government. Which makes it...
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Republicans Hate Obamacare so Much, They Refuse to Benefit from It?
Here is a chart from the Washington Post, showing the percent of people lacking health insurance over the last few years. For a long time now, a higher proportion of Democrats have been uninsured than...
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