Maggie Mahar, Healthcare Fellow at The Century Foundation and author of the path-breaking book Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, writes one of the most up-to-the-minute, authoritative blogs on healthcare reform on the web, the Health Beat blog. Read her most recent posts by clicking below:

To purchase a copy of Maggie Mahar's book Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much click here

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For information on book sales or for arranging an onsite appearance by the author, Maggie Mahar, at your screening please email: Matthew.Inman@harpercollins.com

• Atul Gawande: “Letting Go: What Should Medicine Do When It Can’t Save Your Life?”
  Summary: In the August 2 issue of the New Yorker, Boston surgeon Atul Gawande writes about the ambiguities that plague end-of-life care. With the candor that makes his writing both so credible and so moving, he acknowledges that, as a...
  
  
• Diagnosis Without Treatment: The Perils of New Tests for Early Alzheimer’s Disease
  In April, an independent panel established by the National Institutes of Health came to the disheartening conclusion that currently, there is nothing to prevent or delay the progress of Alzheimer’s disease in those of us who are destined to join...
  
  
• The Best of the Health Care Blogs, Despite the “Dog Days of Summer”
  Summary: Once again, Health Wonk Review offers a round-up of many of the most intriguing and informative health care posts that appeared during the preceding two weeks. Julie Ferguson, of Workers Comp Insider, http://www.workerscompinsider.com hosts the most recent edition. She...
  
  
• 50,000 to 90,000 American Women Incorrectly Diagnosed with Breast Cancer Annually-- A Story in the NYT That Women and Their Doctors Should Read
  As regular Health Beat readers know, over the past three years, Naomi Freundlich, and I have written about the risks as well as the benefits of mammograms more than once on this blog. Nevertheless, I want to call attention to...
  
  
• 5 Myths and Facts about Medicare — In Pictures
  Summary: Not long ago the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPac) came out with a data book on Medicare spending. The information is condensed into tables and charts. As I looked at the charts, I found some surprises. Below, myths and...
  
  
• A Response to Cato’s Reply: Pollster.com Shows Disapproval Fading As Americans Learn More about Health Care Reform
  The Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon has replied to Part 1 of my response to Cato’s report on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) .You’ll find his reply here. Unfortunately, the Cato Institute website doesn’t have a space for...
  
  
• A Reply to the Cato Institute’s Report on Healthcare Reform - Part 1
  This week, the Cato Institute released a 52-page report on health care reform titled: Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law. The tract was written by Michael Tanner, a senior fellow...
  
  
• Obama's National AIDS Plan Is Short on Funding For Most Vulnerable
  This week the White House unveiled its new national plan to cut HIV infections and curb the AIDS epidemic. The plan, the first ever since AIDS emerged on the scene some 30 years ago, has the goal of "intensifying HIV...
  
  
• Electronic Health Records, Patient-Centered Care, and Regina Holliday
  Today the Department of Health and Human Services announced what criteria doctors and hospitals will be required to meet if they want to receive payments to help buy the Health IT needed to computerize patients’ medical records. Under the HiTech...
  
  
• Page-Turners: Summer Reading
  Over at “The New Health Dialogue,” New America Foundation’s Joanne Kenen offers a reading list for health care aficionados. Let me be clear: she’s not talking about wonky books, but books you might read while “curled up in a giant...