OK. Here I go again. I’m going to tick off a few of you with my discussion of small business.. The facts are that our government has no clue that not all “small” business are the same, nor do they understand that lifestyle businesses are not really small businesses. Yet, they produce economic policies assuming the contrary. And, because of that our national economy suffers.
Continue reading Our Economy Needs Entrepreneurs
While reading the New York Times (NYT) this past Sunday (What? You don’t?), I was struck once again how the law of unintended circumstances comes into play. [Ed: This was written 3 June 2012.] The Times’ front page article headline read: “The $2.7 Trillion Medical Bill”, which really focused on just one medical procedure- colonoscopic exams.
Continue reading Another Example of Unintended Circumstances
We discussed uncompensated care a few days ago, where I mentioned the variation in health care costs across the US. But, is that variability related to the cost of living in the various regions of the US? Or, is it attributable to the relative health of folks in various regions?
Continue reading Healthcare Costs- Controversy and Data
It’s that time of year again. Where every Senator, Congressman, Businessman clamors for tax reform. Which really is never about tax reform, but about making the playing field more beneficial for someone (their special someone).
Continue reading We Need This Tax Reform
It was more than 4 decades ago that I considered starting my own compounding pharmacy. It was an idea hatched during a meeting among Drs. Joseph Letteri, Lawrence Brennan (both were nephrologists practicing at the Nassau County Medical Center), Shelly Fialkoff, and me. Both Drs. Letteri and Brennan were gracious in offering their time and input to a young tyke like me.
Continue reading A Road Not Taken
We read that Chinese cities are overtaken by pollution. We know that there are plenty of those sites that exist in the US, too. All of this pollution makes breathing tough. It often leads to a progressive disease called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
When I got married in 1989, the last time I had visited a physician’s office was more than a quarter century earlier. Oh, I’d been to hospitals (broken arms, shattered glass, shattered vertebrae, horrendous wrecks), but to a physician per se- nope.
Continue reading Doctor, Doctor, Mr. MD, Can You Tell Me What’s Ailing Me?
I have been complaining for a long time that our governments- federal, state, and local- are doing us, the citizens, a grand disservice. They have basically shirked one of their primary duties- to maintain and upgrade our infrastructure. To be honest, upgrading is so far from what they’ve done, I’m sure that most of us would be thrilled with their simply maintaining what we have.
Continue reading Infrastructure problems are NOT going away
OK. This is rant time. Corporate profits are doing fine- even if we (the consumer, the population) are not. A lot of this profit is due to the fact that workers are not being paid well, or that there are not enough workers (i.e., corporations are “running lean”, often meaning there are too few workers for the tasks at hand).
It’s always amazing to me when I hear certain politicians complaining about the waste in government spending, that our deficit is increasing. Like the past few days, of course. Not because I don’t think they are right- but because these are almost the same guys voting for stupid things- like a milk subsidy.
Continue reading Got Milk (Subsidy)?