Expert, Shmexpert
March 14, 2008
If you’ve ever owned a car and never built one, you know the sense of powerless frustration when something goes wrong with it. Unless you have the good fortune of having a best friend who is a mechanic, you never know whom you can trust to fix your car.
That sputtering and clanking, the clutch’s failure to engage, the air conditioner that keeps conking out – who knows what’s really causing it? You might as well hand your wallet over to your mechanic and hope he treats it gently. What’s more distressing is that all those tricks we resort to to keep us from feeling like total rubes – getting a second opinion, finding a mechanic who talks you through the problem – may not amount to anything.
“Freedom and Unity” and Excellent Health
February 28, 2008
If you’ve ever wondered which of our 50 states has the healthiest populace, wonder no longer – someone’s keeping track. For the first time in its 18 years of rankings, the United Health Foundation has placed Vermont at number 1. The Green Mountain State has been steadily climbing in the rankings since taking 8th in 2001, up from an initial position of 16th in 1990.
- Second place went to Minnesota, down from its 1st place finish the last 4 years and in 7 other years since 1990.
- Third place went to Hawaii, followed by New Hampshire, Connecticut and Utah.
Kids Get Worse Care
February 19, 2008
A study of children in a dozen metropolitan areas found that they got the recommended medical care from their doctors less than half of the time. This means that kids are doing worse than adults in this country when it comes to getting good doctor care. “Doctors did best with acute problems, such as upper-respiratory-tract infections, treating them correctly about two-thirds of the time. But with chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes, they gave the right care 53% of the time. The worst showing was in preventive care: 41%.”
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