Disturbing Paragraph of the Month

I read an article entitled "Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat will Change our Lives", courtesy of Marginal Revolution.  (A blog that is now one of my favorites).  The article contains the most disturbing paragraph I've read this month. (The overall article being quite interesting).   The article discusses the emergence of in-vitro meat (mass produced, as the article describes it: "tank steak, sci fi sausage, petri pork, beaker bacon, Frankenburger, vat-grown veal, laboratory lamb, synthetic shmeat, trans-ham, factory filet, test tube tuna, cultured chicken, or any other moniker that can seduce the shopper's stomach").  The article goes through a number of potential implications of mass-produced, cheap IVF, including #6:

Humans are animals, so every hipster will try Cannibalism. Perhaps we'll just eat people we don't like, as author Iain M. Banks predicted in his short story, "The State of the Art" with diners feasting on "Stewed Idi Amin." But I imagine passionate lovers literally eating each other, growing sausages from their co-mingled tissues overnight in tabletop appliances similar to bread-making machines.

We shall see.  (Burgers compliments of Red Robin.)

via Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat will Change Our Lives | h+ Magazine.

A Picture is Worth...

I've given some thought to how to better visually present information since seeing a recent TED talk (post here) setting forth graphical representations of changing economic, public health and other information over time.  Here's another great example showing the growth and decline of the British, Spanish, French and Portuguese maritime colonial empires over the 19th and 20th centuries.



Visualizing empires decline from Pedro M Cruz on Vimeo.

Thinking about Change

Recently the Plain Dealer ran an article on key success factors for government reform in Cuyahoga County based upon Allegheny County's experience.  I've been chewing on this article a bit and thinking about characteristics of a County Executive candidate I could support.   As the article observes, we can learn more than just how to win a Superbowl from Pittsburgh.  (Yes, it hurts to say that.)  One lesson appears to be that Issue 6's passage is not the end in itself, but a means to an end.  The end being meaningful reform and ongoing positive evolution of regional governance, government services and economic development.  Here is what I took from the article and a few personal observations I've been thinking about as I consider whom to support for the County Executive position.

Change is Difficult until it Comes. The article points out that Allegheny's reform barely passed -- although almost all support the reform today.   It seems to me that effective reform will require stakeholders to internalize what the populace is saying and realize meaningful change at the Cuyahoga County department level.   Perhaps we should be even better positioned for effective change since the voters in every single municipality in the County supported Issue 6.  That's quite amazing.  I hope we have the option of choosing elected leadership, particularly at the County Executive position, that has limited vested interest in the status quo and the current County department structures.  I go back to Niccolo Maciavelli's observation about inertia:

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.  The hesitation of the latter arises... in part from the general skepticism of mankind which does not really believe in an innovation until experience proves its value.

Health Care Reform

The one good thing about the debate thus far has been my ability to procrastinate.  Frankly, I've been happy that nothing definitive has passed either the House or the Senate.  Not for any particular partisan or ideological reason, but simply because once it does, I, and a lot of attorneys I know, will have a lot of primary source reading to do.   Summaries suffice until laws are passed and language must be parsed.  That time may be about here with the vote yesterday on H.R. 3962.

Recently a client, who is also taking an MBA course, asked if I had any useful information about the health care reform debate.   She wanted less highly technical materials; she wanted materials she could use to understand the debate and that were not completely uninteresting.   I told her I had a few decent links of materials I'd read over the last six months or so.  Some I've highlighted here.

• This American Life.   In two programs, "More Is Less" and "Someone Else's Money"  they spend a couple hours, in TAL's original 'explain it through an anecdote' kind of way, exploring factors influencing health care inflation and how our employer driven health insurance system evolved into what it is today.   They did the programs with NPR News and specifically the Planet Money folks that helped with their amazing programs on the financial crisis -- "The Great Pool of Money" and "Bad Bank."

• How American Health Care Killed my Father, by David Goldhill (Atlantic, September 2009).  A very readable and personalized discussion of distortions in the American healthcare system.  Final argument is that health care insurance reform should look at forcing more financial obligations on patients and move toward catastrophic coverage.   David Brooks mentioned this article in an op-ed piece he wrote.

• The Cost Conundrum, Atul Gawande (New Yorker, June 2009).   I discuss the article here.  This is important since it was very widely discussed and it's themes regarding variations in health care spending (many arguing as necessary to fix to "bend the curve"), has gotten a lot of attention.  I also noted a recent HHS-OIG settlement in McAllen; of interest due to my discussion.

• Lost in the Shuffle: The Overarching Goals of Healthcare Reform, Uwe Reinhardt (New York Times, September 2009).  Professor Reinhardt suscinctly sets out the economic objectives of the current health care reform debate.

• Health Policy Brief - Public Health Insurance Plan, Health Affairs (Health Affairs, June 2009).  Due to the inordinate attention to be or not to be over a public plan, I suggested this quick summary to her.

• Health Care Inflation Trends.  Since one major component of health care reform is 'bending the curve', what of health care inflation?  I pointed out one post from a blog I follow that succinctly summarizes Medicare, Medicaid projections.  I also suggest a private analysis discussing health care spending inflation and the impact on reform concluding "given that the current path of GDP and consumption appears to be sustainable for only another decade, reform of the federal health care programs and a realignment of the health care sector will occur soon."

• Side by Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals.  I also suggested this interactive chart allowing you to compare various of the major health care reform proposals and analyze them side by side.

If I were giving to her today, I'd probably add:

• Some Vaguely Heretical Thoughts on Health-Care Reform, John Cassidy (New Yorker, Rational Irrationality Blog, November 2009).  Discussion of H.B. 3962 and what it achieves and does not.