WSJ reports that American physicians’ interest in moving to New Zealand has boomed in the past few years. English is the primary language. Many medical specialties require no additional training or certifications. Working for a public health system may feel quite different than working for a U.S. hospital. WSJ did not say this but whereas American hospitals expect employed physicians to see as many patients as possible to boost revenue, the opposite is often true in countries with a single payer health care system. Patient care is a cost center, not a revenue center.
Category: Direct Primary Care
What’s Wrong with the Hospital Sector
Policies such as certificate-of-need laws, payment differentials between care settings, restrictions on physician-owned hospitals, Medicaid financing gimmicks, and broad subsidies have driven hospital prices far above inflation, encouraged hospitals to acquire physician practices and merge into large health systems, and weakened consumer pressure on costs.
Source: John Graham, Paragon Institute
The Washington Post Asks AI Chatbots Medical Questions, Doesn’t Like the Answers
I am constantly amazed at how well artificial intelligence chatbots scour the literature and respond with answers to obscure questions. I have asked Microsoft Copilot and Google AI technical questions, and the responses steered me to websites where experts with more experience than I were discussing the topic. That does not mean the responses were…
WSJ: 80 is the new 60 (Social Security and Medicare are Really in Trouble)
Recently I read about how people aged faster and looked older for their age back when I was young. It is not just because everyone looked old when we were kids. There are a variety of reasons for this, including better health, and a lower disease burden. And it was not just the poor who aged faster and whose life ended early, although wealth is generally associated with health.