Monday, August 22, 2011

Quick Links: Snitching, Collectivism, Meaningful Use

The National Post reports how Ontario's health ministry has established a "snitch line" where people can report on doctors who engage in private-pay health care without government approval.

Dr. Rich Fogoros discusses the latest attempts to argue against direct-pay medicine on the grounds that "opting out" of the system increases the burdens on the rest of doctors and patients.

(Of course, those arguments omit the fact that those burdens are caused by government restrictions of the free market in the first place -- including licensing requirements for practitioners -- and would be easily alleviated by permitting a free market in health care services.)

Physician-blogger "NotDeadDinosaur" discusses how "Meaningful Use Requires Meaningless Data".

(The government will be requiring physicians to collect and submit data that doesn't have any relevance to their clinical practice -- but could be used in the future for political purposes. Via @rlbates and @sonodoc99.)