Earlier this month, President Obama took the unprecedented step of authoring an academic research article in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) to document the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) accomplishments and suggest improvements.
 

EconVue Q&A with David W. Johnson and his new book, Market vs. Medicine: America's Epic Fight for Better, Affordable Healthcare

Q: Who should read market vs. medicine?

A: Healthcare professionals and anyone interested in how the market will fix America’s very broken and very expensive healthcare system.

Q: You have interviewed many healthcare startups for this book, which company stands out the most and why?

Wisconsin may never be the same. Green Bay Packers star quarterback announced this month that he has stopped eating dairy products to “get healthier.” As Bart Simpson might observe, the State of Wisconsin is having a "collective cow".

The Packers are the only publically-owned NFL team. Wisconsin is “The Dairy State.” The Packers and dairy products are inextricably woven into the identity of Wisconsin residents. That’s why Packers fans proudly call themselves “Cheeseheads.”
 

The Lujiazui Forum, June 11-12 in Shanghai featured a gathering of senior level Chinese officials and prominent academics to talk about the economy and how the financial sector can contribute to overall economic growth. The annual gathering is named for the Lujiazui neighborhood in the Pudong district of Shanghai. Shanghai is positioning itself for rapid emergence as an international financial hub.

My response after reading professor Joi Ito's piece at https://joi.ito.com/weblog/2016/06/14/-the-fintech-bu.html, 

Like hospitals that optimize revenues through complex assignment of charges, discounts and subsidies, aligned pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and pharmaceutical companies manipulate retail and net pricing on “branded” drugs to enhance organizational profitability.
 

The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) released its annual report of healthcare prices last month. To no-one’s surprise, HCCI found huge variation in commercial prices for 240 common medical services across 41 states. Here’s an excerpt from HCCI’s press release:
 
In New Hampshire and Wisconsin, over 20 percent of health care services are twice the national average price. While in Arizona, Florida, Maryland and Tennessee, over 90 percent of health care services are priced lower than the national average.
 

The sun has finally appeared, and the TV trucks are rolling out of this ancient hot springs town on the outskirts of Sendai, Japan. This was the location over the weekend of the G7 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers which, although civil, has ended with a lack of consensus.

If you haven't heard, I'm moving into a passive role at Technori after six years and a wonderful person, Scott Kitun, is taking my place as the CEO and the face of Technori. You can read about it in the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Inno. You can reach Scott at kitun@technori.com.
 

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