Daily Rounds: Public Health Tax; Docs Who Cook; Reform Risks For Mental Health Care

Panel proposed a new tax to pay for public health (NPR) - "It may sound counterintuitive, but a panel of experts from the Institute of Medicine has concluded that the best way to slow the nation's breakneck spending on medical care is to impose a tax on every health care transaction. That tax — amount TBD, but possibly a half-percent or so — would go to replenish the coffers of the nation's state and local public health agencies."

To heal, first eat: Doctors learn to cook healthy, 'crave-able' food (The New York Times) - "The son of a Brooklyn baker, Dr. Eisenberg is the founder and chief officiant of “Healthy Kitchens/Healthy Lives,” an “‘interfaith marriage,” as he calls it, among physicians, public health researchers and distinguished chefs that seeks to tear down the firewall between “healthy” and “ crave-able” cuisine. Although physicians are on the front lines of the nation’s diabetes and obesity crises, many graduate from medical school with little knowledge of nutrition, let alone cooking."

Commentary: Stop differentiating between health of body and mind (Quincy Patriot-Ledger) - "The move to reform health-care payments in Massachusetts presents an exciting opportunity to achieve parity by incentivizing insurers, health systems and physicians to truly integrate behavioral health care into Massachusetts’ health-care system. As with any opportunity, however, risks abound. For behavioral health-care providers and the individuals they serve, the most significant risk is that the minimal dollars now used to fund behavioral health services will be siphoned away by large health systems and insurers focused on cutting costs."

Experts: Obamacare could hit paycheck (The Boston Herald) - "The nation’s anemic economic recovery could suffer a brutal blow at the hands of Obamacare, critics say, as a new study shows mandated health care in Massachusetts cut $6,000 from some Bay State residents’ annual pay. Economists Jonathan Kolstad and Amanda Kowalski — writing for the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution — found that Massachusetts employees who bought workplace coverage because of mandated health care saw their wages plummet."