This is the second in a series of conversations I had with some open-minded colleagues who also deeply want to seen meaningful change in the U.S. healthcare system. The person I primarily responded to mentioned a chapter in Pursuing the Triple Aim. Here is what I wrote back to him: I...
Read More »

I’m in an email group that is all in agreement that the U.S. healthcare system is exorbitantly expensive and needs reform. We come from wildly different backgrounds. The variety of perspectives is wonderful. However, a claim of some of the contributors is that aggressive medical therapy of cardiovascular disease (CVD) chronic...
Read More »

2060 was reviewed in the latest issue of the journal Family Medicine. Here is the link: https://journals.stfm.org/familymedicine/2023/november-december/br-salzman-0214/ I won’t repeat the entire review here, but here are the concluding thoughts: Dr Young describes health care in other developed countries that provides better outcomes for substantially lower costs and makes the case...
Read More »

2060 is getting great reviews on Amazon. Order 2060 here. For those of you who haven’t purchased 2060, I present Chapter 1. July 12, 2060 Willis Smith walked towards the front doors of the Prairie Oaks nursing home as he had for the umpteenth time in the last six months. This...
Read More »

I am thrilled to announce the publication of my new novel, 2060. Here is a link (but it’s on all the major publishing websites) https://www.amazon.com/2060-Richard-Young-ebook/dp/B0C3826FZ1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=18IJKL4Y8V8ST&keywords=2060&qid=1691704103&s=books&sprefix=2060%2Cstripbooks%2C127&sr=1-1 Here is the teaser: A realistic portrayal of the future dystopian realities of the American healthcare system. Willis Smith lives a Gen-Z nightmare. He has survived...
Read More »

The topic today is some of the older diabetes treatments. I’ll cover some of the newer agents–jardiance, ozempic, trulicity, and so on–next month. The cost-effectiveness literature covers individual drugs and overall goals such as “intensive glucose control” or “goal of normoglycemia.” Before I get into the details, I will try to...
Read More »

I’m on an email group whose members are heavy into the money side of healthcare. They are fighting back against our exorbitantly expensive healthcare system. The members of this group know a lot about the macro-economics of healthcare—overall spend, spend by major categories, some cross-national comparisons—and the finance of healthcare—carve-outs, loss...
Read More »

As I’ve said probably many times in previous posts, I have a huge admiration for every other developed country in the way they have developed processes unique to their cultures to limit how much they spend on healthcare. If you’re interested in learning more how Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium...
Read More »

Adalimumab (Humira) is the most expensive drug in the world in terms of total sales: $19.9 billion in 2018. Five biosimilars (generic equivalents) have been approved by the FDA, but none have been marketed because they have been locked up in patent disputes by the manufacturer, Abbvie. The story is much...
Read More »

CMS just announced that U.S. healthcare spending increased 4.6% in 2019 to $3.8 trillion, which accounted for 17.7% of the GDP. In contrast, the general inflation rate in 2019 was approximately 1.8%.  Of course, this was all before coronavirus hit. Before we get to 2020, these numbers say in a very...
Read More »