Atul Gawande, M.D., who recently wrote a much-discussed article about health care costs, has responded to his critics in a New Yorker blog post. He addresses the three main objections that have been raised about his article: the snowbirds, medical malpractice and the unhealthy population in McAllen, Texas. His rebuttal includes data about McAllen and El Paso, the two cities he used for comparison.
He also points out that McAllen and El Paso spend nearly the same amount of money on health care in the early nineteen-nineties. “By the late nineties, however, it had become one of the most expensive regions in the country for Medicare and it has continued that way. Yet, public data show no sudden decline in health status or income for the McAllen population.”
