September 30, 2011

The Coming Obama Administration War on Doctors

By Scott Kirwin
A recent study in the journal "Health Affairs" compared physicians in the United States with those in Europe, Australia, and Canada and concluded that higher physician fees, including those by primary care physicians (PCPs), were the main reason for escalating health care costs in the U.S.  In short, the authors of the study Miriam Laugesen, an associate professor at Columbia University, and Sherry Glied, appointed in June 2010 by the Obama administration to the position of assistant health secretary for planning and evaluation, believe doctors are overpaid. Glied tried distancing the Obama administration from the study in a statement after the study was announced, saying that the study did not reflect the administration's views.  Laugesen has targeted physicians in the past.  In her 2009 paper "Siren Song," she compared Congress to Ulysses as being unable to resist the siren song of physicians' groups.  Glied's work has been no less controversial, penning a study...(Read Full Article)