August 20, 2006

  1. Which public figure is reported to have said the following? "The soaring cost of health care in America cannot be sustained over the long term by any business that offers health benefits to its employees, and every day that we do not work together to solve this challenge is a day that our country becomes less competitive in the global economy."
    1. Ted Kennedy, senior Senator from Massachusetts.
    2. Ned Lamont, Democratic candidate for Senator from Connecticut.
    3. Hillary Rodham Clinton, senior Senator from New York.
    4. Howard Dean M.D., liberal Democrat from Vermont.
    5. None of the above
  2. Electronic Patient Records should reduce medical errors and costs, saving lives and saving dollars — about $80 billion a year according to the RAND Corporation. Digital files are a building block in the creation of far more efficient markets in health care. But efficient markets can be ruthless and unpredictable. An information revolution in health care promises to be potentially disruptive for some lucrative businesses in the industry. "If better information really helps us to understand what is happening in health care, it could well lead to more care for more people and higher costs for the system as a whole."
    1. Bill Frist, senior Senator from Tennessee.
    2. Hillary Rodham Clinton, senior Senator from New York.
    3. David J Brailer, M.D., architect of the Bush administration’s health information technology policy.
    4. David M Cutler, health economist at Harvard University.

Answers

  1. None of the above. Taken from a speech to the National Governor's Association in February 2006 by H. Lee Scott Jr, chief executive of Wal-Mart company. (article by Floyd Norris, "Swiping at Industry from Atop the Stump", NYT, August 20, 2006, Week in Review, pg4.
  2. David M Cutler, quoted in an article by Steve Lohr, "Smart Care Via the Mouse, but Will it Cost?", NYT, August 20, 2006, Sunday Business, pg1.