Is the patient DOA?
If we do resuscitate, will our patient be in a vegetative state?
The Wall Street Journal Health Blog and The Health Care Blog mention the trickle down effect of the Financial Market's meltdown. It seems obvious that hospital construction will slow or be delayed if borrowing becomes more difficult. Hospitals service debt loans and the interest rates have more than doubled the past year.
U.S. med-tech still leads the world, but the larger economy could compromise both the U.S. lead in the sector as well as health innovations.
Will tighter credit slow medical technology innovation? Big Pharma is also making deep cuts in R&D, unable to justify the tremendous cost of new drugs in the pipeline and increases in attendant risk with new classes of drugs.
From Consumer Health Care Choices and The Heartland Institute,Greg Scandlen reports,
"One of the few upsides of the current financial markets turmoil and the housing meltdown is that they are likely to put the kibosh on any major expansion of government health programs
People will want to have more control over their own lives and their own fortunes.
Increases in joblessness will raise spending on Medicaid and unemployment insurance,
One interesting addition to the combined financial bailout bill which passed the Senate yesterday is the mental health parity bill requiring mental health coverage to be equivalent to medical and surgical coverage.
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