When the government began the push for electronic health records (EHR) as part of the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, public and private health care providers were required to demonstrate ‘meaningful use’ by 2014. Perhaps you remember visiting your doctor about this time only to discover he or she was frustrated, face buried in a computer screen desperately trying to find all the pulldown menus necessary to advance to the next page. Your doctor had to type physician notes while listening to you and examining you. Of course, that does not work well and is detrimental to the quality of your physician visit.
Category: Direct Primary Care
Monday Links – 26 January 2026
- Insurers blame hospitals and drugs companies for rising health care costs.
- Why lower prices do not necessarily lower health care spending.
- Obamacare penalizes marriage. Thanks to Devon Herrick for the pointer.
- The federal government’s increasing share of spending has grown from 32 percent to nearly 50 percent today.
- “French supertax on wealthy raises only a quarter of planned revenue,”
- 2025 was far and away the worst year for measles cases in the 21st century.
- Deporting workers lowers our GDP.
- Three bills offer Health Savings Account solutions for the Obamacare impasse in Congress.
Friday Links
- Direct primary care for everyone: A $2,000 voucher and 600 patients per doctor.
- A new FDA rule: In testing for new drugs, companies no longer have to ignore what they already know.
- Why the drop in fentanyl deaths? A fentanyl “drought,” which may have its causes in China.
- America is experiencing a “once-in-a-lifetime improvement in public safety despite a police-staffing crisis.”
- Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in healthcare top the 2026 list of the most significant health technology hazards.
Should Medical Care Be a Consumer Good?
Republicans wisely want to inject more consumerism into the medical marketplace. Health savings accounts, high-deductible health plans, direct primary care, price transparency are all attempts to encourage patients to act more like consumers. Democrats, by contrast, seemingly want to remove every shred of consumer sovereignty from health care. Not to cast aspersions, but it is true. Obamacare is but one example.