Category: Healthcare Sector
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Solutions For Surviving US Healthcare Collapse In 2018 / Politics / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK WATSON : My weekly letter, Connecting the Dots, has two goals: to be informative and to be thought-provoking (subscribe here for free). Last week, it accomplished both—but not the way I expected.
Many people call the Affordable Care Act a great success that only needs minor adjustments. So when I picked the title of last week’s issue, How to Survive the Obamacare Collapse, I thought some people would be upset that I questioned its viability.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
2 Charts Show Just How Close We Are to US Healthcare Collapse / Politics / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK WATSON : Like it or not, Obamacare lives. The question is, for how long?
President Trump is right when he says the Affordable Care Act will collapse on its own. Its condition is terminal, and Congress declined treatment.
Maybe that’s no big deal to you. Maybe you’re on Medicare, or get group health coverage from your employer, or are independently wealthy, or you’re in good health and confident you will remain so.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, March 31, 2017
The Case for Socialized Medicine / Politics / Healthcare Sector
Last week the American political establishment was shaken to its foundation when the Republican Party leadership withdrew the American Health Care Act (AHCA) just before the vote was to be taken on the floor of the House of Representatives. Besides being a most unusual procedure, it exposed a fundamental split in the country,reflected not merely in Congress but within the Republican Party. GOP purists, represented by the House Freedom Caucus, demanded more significant roll backs in socialized medicine that were contained in the Ryan plan. Their refusal to back the plan, after years of promising complete repeal, doomed the bill.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, March 26, 2017
What Obamacare's Failure Means for America / Politics / Healthcare Sector
The first legislative setback of the Trump Administration is being celebrated by many, but not by middle class taxpayers and business owners. A Republican-led Congress last week failed to generate the consensus required to overturn key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In a frank admission of defeat, House Speaker Paul Ryan declared that Obamacare would remain "the law of the land."
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Here’s Why Interstate Health Insurance Won’t Fix Obamacare / Trumpcare / Politics / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK WATSON : Congress has a new healthcare plan to replace Obamacare. It may go nowhere since many Republicans aren’t happy with it… and the problems it tries to solve will remain.
Worse, anything that gets past the House and Senate may not matter if insurers refuse to play in 2018. The big ones haven’t committed yet.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 20, 2017
Obamacare Healthcare Repeal or Obamacare 2.0? / Politics / Healthcare Sector
This Thursday, the House of Representatives will vote on a Republican bill that supposedly repeals Obamacare. However, the bill retains Obamacare's most destructive features.
That is not to say this legislation is entirely without merit. For example, the bill expands the amount individuals can contribute to a health savings account (HSA). HSAs allow individuals to save money tax-free to pay for routine medical expenses. By restoring individuals' control over healthcare dollars, HSAs remove the distortions introduced in the healthcare market by government policies encouraging over-reliance on third-party payers.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
“Ryancare” Dead on Arrival: Can We Please Now Try Single Payer? / Politics / Healthcare Sector
The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than Americans. . . . We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing. — Donald Trump, The America We Deserve (2000)
The new American Health Care Act has been unveiled, and it has been pronounced an even greater disaster than Obamacare. Dubbed “Ryancare” or “Trumpcare” (over the objection of White House staff), the Republican health care bill is under attack from all sides, with even conservative leaders calling it “Obamacare Lite”, “bad policy”, a “warmed-over substitute,” and “dead on arrival.”
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, March 10, 2017
TrumpCare: Different Plan, Same Problems / Politics / Healthcare Sector
With his widely followed, and positively reviewed, address to Congress last week, President Trump showed how easy it could be to unite Washington around a big-budget centrist agenda on health care, immigration, taxes, infrastructure and the military. But the continued accusations surrounding his campaign’s alleged Russian connections, and the President’s conspiratorial responses, have insured that the battle lines have only hardened. However, anyone with even a casual concern with ballooning government debt should take notice just how easily both parties in Washington would agree to vastly expand the gushing red ink if a political truce can be brokered. Those fears should galvanize around the newly-issued Republican replacement for Obamacare. If such a monstrous bill could successfully navigate Congress, we would find ourselves stuck deeper in a deficit deluge than we can possibly imagine.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
The Future of Pharma In The Age Of Trump / Companies / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK COX : Last week, Donald Trump complained about drug prices in a press conference. Drug companies, he said, are “getting away with murder.” During that presser, pharma and biotech stocks lost over $20 billion in value.
Investors should have learned an important lesson. They probably didn’t.
Trump’s targeting of drug sellers was not a fluke. Hillary Clinton's "price gouging" tweet last September had the same type of impact on markets.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Cryobanking Could Solve The Transplant Organ Shortage / Companies / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK COX : What’s the one medical condition most likely to kill you? If you follow statistics, you'd probably say heart disease. Each year, more than a million Americans have a heart attack. And about one in four deaths in the US is due to the condition.
Though heart disease tops most "causes of death" lists, far more Americans die due to the transplant organ shortage. And heart transplants could prevent most cardiac arrest deaths.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
The One Stock to Retire On / Companies / Healthcare Sector
Dear Reader,
A little-known biotech company is about to answer the biggest medical question of our time:
Am I going to have a stroke?
And you’ll get an answer in about 40 seconds.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Trump’s FDA Chief May Implement Progressive Approval for Drugs / Companies / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK COX : President-elect Trump's cabinet appointments are generating a great deal of attention and controversy. After eight years of Democrat rule, it would be foolish to expect otherwise.
One appointment, though, will have a profound impact on your health… and the health of your loved ones.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
How Obamacare Could Have Saved the Economy / Economics / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK WATSON : Some people say Obamacare was designed to fail, a clever attempt to pull us toward socialized healthcare.
I don’t know if that’s true. But it’s a fact that Obamacare is failing.
The so-called reform never worked very well because it didn’t reduce the underlying cost pressures. Now it’s falling apart.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
The Cannabis Sector after the Vote – Boom or Bust?? / Companies / Healthcare Sector
Technical Analyst Clive Maund takes a look at the cannabis sector, and how the the election results for eight states, including California, might facilitate a massive boom.
Not only do we have the US elections today, we also have voting in eight states on the legalization of cannabis, including the all-important State of California, which just by itself is one of the biggest economies in the world. The outcome of this vote is of crucial importance to the future of this fledgling industry, although all the indications are that it will be favorable.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, November 04, 2016
Here’s the Proven Model That Could Save Health Care and the US Economy / Politics / Healthcare Sector
Millions of Americans are learning just how much their Obamacare premiums will be next year. But even if you have health coverage through your employer—or you’re 65+ and on Medicare, like me—you’re going to see severe inflation in the healthcare part of your budget.
But there’s a possible solution to the healthcare problem. The Cleveland Clinic has achieved remarkable results with its 100,000+ employees and dependents. They are making people healthier and reducing medical costs. And it’s a model that I think could work on a much broader scale.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Obamacare Is Draining Our Financial Reserves / Politics / Healthcare Sector
Barack Obama will stop being president on January 20. He will leave behind the signature accomplishment of his eight years in office: Obamacare. Some see it is a disaster, and others see it as a triumph. But I think everybody agrees that there needs to be changes.
Yes, millions more people now have access to health insurance. That’s a very good thing—but access to health insurance is not the same as access to healthcare. And access to healthcare is not the same as access to affordable healthcare.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
It’s Not Just Obamacare–Healthcare Systems Are Failing Everywhere / Politics / Healthcare Sector
BY PATRICK COX : I’ve talked to many Canadian tourists who tell me that they’re having some medical procedure done while in the States. This is because the wait can be so long back home. As an uncouth American with borderline Tourette’s, I like to point out that their government health care doesn’t seem like such a utopian system after all. This typically provokes a defense of the Canada Health Act of 1984.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
Is Healthcare the Silent Killer? / Politics / Healthcare Sector
I’ve never heard anyone brag about what they spend for a medical procedure. Healthcare isn’t like housing or transportation. People are proud to shell out big bucks for a big house, and many drivers can’t wait to show off their expensive set of wheels.But when it comes to healthcare, we’re only smiling when we save money, not spend it, which makes the current trend so much more difficult.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 29, 2016
The Right Lessons from Obamacare's Meltdown / Politics / Healthcare Sector
The decision of several major insurance companies to cut their losses and withdraw from the Obamacare exchanges, combined with the failure of 70 percent of Obamacare's health insurance "co-ops," will leave one in six Obamacare enrollees with only one health insurance option. If Obamacare continues on its current track, most of America may resemble Pinal County, Arizona, where no one can obtain private health insurance. Those lucky enough to obtain insurance will face ever-increasing premiums and a declining choice of providers.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Sernova, Diabetes and Haemophilia / Companies / Healthcare Sector
Paul Lacey was a researcher at Washington University when, in 1972, he cured some diabetic rats by transplanting the islet cells from healthy rats into diabetic ones.
Over the next two decades researchers made many attempts to apply the procedure to humans. Unfortunately no one was successful. By the early 1990’s most scientists had come to the conclusion that islet-cell transplantation was a lost cause.
Drs. James Shapiro, Jonathan Lakey and colleagues from the University of Alberta in Edmonton were successful at improving the treatment of a select group with severe diabetes through development of the Edmonton protocol in the late 1990s.
Read full article... Read full article...