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Post by Maui on Dec 16, 2008 14:39:39 GMT
John Podesta of the Obama - Biden Transition Project sent me a form email asking to organize health care discussions in my community. Now, unless someone else in my town here has already planned this, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get Doctor Dave and a meeting room scheduled; there might be a snowstorm; and they want my results by December 31. In the mean time, I would appreciate comments from folks who read this forum.
"Health care is a top priority for President-elect Obama and for Senator Tom Daschle, Secretary-designate for Health and Human Services (HHS). They both are committed to health care reform that comes from the ground up -- that's why this holiday season, we're asking you to give us the gift of your ideas and input."
Please post your thoughts, or email me, phillip.bose@yahoo.com
Thank you, and Happy Holidays!!!
Phil
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Post by Kevin VE3EN on Dec 17, 2008 2:43:17 GMT
I am just happy I live in Canada .. as far as health care goes
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Post by Acolyte on Dec 18, 2008 21:17:50 GMT
My wife is happy she came to Australia - we (Aussies) think our Health care sucks compared to what it used to be but it's still a light year ahead of what she went through in the States.
Do you want comment from outside about our impressons of the US system? or you could take a look at Sicko, the Michael Moore comentary on the US Health system. That highlights some of the differences between the way the rest of the world views things & what you poor buggers go through if you're not rich.
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Post by Kevin VE3EN on Dec 18, 2008 22:57:30 GMT
Sicko is great movie.
I dont think any president will be able to shake up the health care companies in the US because of all the money
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Post by Maui on Dec 19, 2008 17:34:15 GMT
I am getting very disillusioned very quickly on this...
I am out of work since Rosario Resort closed, and one of my job searches was with the Obama-Biden transition team, to help with climate change and alternate energy. Well, they sent me a form email asking to set up health care community discussions. So I called our rural clinic physician, and he was interested in attending. Then I called the Senior Center to book their conference room and ask if anyone else might be interested in attending. The receptionist told me to book the facility on line, and that Person X was a good community health contact. Well, I went out to shovel snow, and when I came back in Person X had left a message saying in no uncertain terms, "I can't help you." I hadn't asked for help, I just didn't want to step on any toes or duplicate something.
Anyway, I went to the website to book the meeting room. I could see that it was not in use when I wanted it, and so I clicked on "schedule access." It took me to some Google site that wanted a name and password, but they were already filled in; yet when I pressed enter I got a message that my password was invalid. It said, "Your password cannot have '@.' For example, a good password ends in '@orcas.senior.'" The punch line is that the name at the bottom of the web page is "Person X," who already said she wouldn't help me!!!
This was my introduction to politics. Any wonder why cold fusion in hot-spot volcanoes never caught on??
That statistic of $412 per capita annually for insurance administration represents a lot of JOBS, not just gravy. My wife's company has a medical client. Should she be the one who gets cost-contained? I really think the whole affair of cost is impossible... perhaps the only thing that can really change is preventive health care.
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Post by Acolyte on Dec 19, 2008 21:25:54 GMT
Try going to community groups. Look for Old Age, Youth, & other Welfare agents. Look for job assist community agencies, or perhaps free clinics, go to the churches & ask them for contacts. In most countries there are Care groups & organisations who deal with the victims of society.
Don't bother with the Govt groups - they have agendas which are already set. They might have pamphlets or other documents that describe how things are currently set that can be background.
Get to the people on the ground, ask them their problems & see if they can send members and clients in to a meeting to work out what is needed by those with the need.
the time is limited otherwise you could also try publishing a questionaire in local papers asking for community views on whether they feel something should be done about Health Care & if so, What? You could set up a free web site to do a similar thing, then hand out the address - even on the street; Hi, would you like to tell someone what you want in Health Care? Visit this web address.
You realise also you have a resource here on line - ask the yanks on the site to tell you what they think is needed. Kevin or the Mods could possibly organise an Announcement asking people to visit a Thread & comment for you. (or maybe you can 'Announce' it yourself)
Hope this helps - it's how I'd do it here.
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Post by Bob k6tr on Dec 22, 2008 3:55:44 GMT
Hi Maui Excellent thread. I've beem working with Single Payer Health Care Groups here in California since 1994. First let me tell you that Obama and Daschle are not our friends when it comes to implementing Single Payer Healthcare . While they talk positively about Single Payer they dismiss it as unfeasible. Don't buy that line ! They plan to implement their plan called Individual Mandate. This is nothing more than a plan to rescue the insurance industry. It does possess some attractive qualities like the reduction of paperwork but those arguments do not hold water and don't get at the root of the problem which is the Insurance Industry. Right now the Administrative Overhead in our current Fee-for-Service System is 30 - 32 percent. Medicare has an Administrative Overhead of 4 percent and the Canadian Single Payer System operates at 3 percent. And Administrative Overhead includes more than paperwork expenses. It includes the costs for the horrendous overstaffing of Insurance Companies with claims adjusters and the obscene sums of money paid senior staff. (CEOs receiving 10s of millions of dollars annually) As you probably already know the US ranks 18th out of 18 Industriallized Nations in Healthcare based upon a WHO (World Health Organization) Study yet spends TWICE the money of the average of the 17 countries that beat it. So why does Barack Obama want to use the coersive power of the State to compell people to buy insurance they can't afford ? The problem IS NOT MONEY. There is plenty of money to right the system without further burdening the public. The root of the Healthcare Crisis in this country is the Insurance Companies. Any plan that does not give them the boot does nothing more than kick the can down the road. And don't let anyone tell you different. The struggle for Single Payer healthcare has been a long one and the entrench interests are at the top of their game when it comes to perpetrating fraudulent analysis. They're are very effective at creating empty buzz words to effectively divert attention from the root of the problem. Take Universal Access or Universal Coverage. Sounds pretty nice on the surface huh. Well the way politicians define Universal Coverage is to mean that eveyone should be compelled to buy insurance. If you go to a meeting or host one asked the speakers and the guest where they stand on HR-676. HR-676 is the legislation authored by John Conyers which would implement Single Payer Healthcare in this country and watch the response you get. A number of Progressive Legislators who supported some form of Single Payer for decades have reversed their position in the last year to line up behind the insurance industry. If you really want Single Payer Healthcare there are two avenues to pursue. First get behind HR-676 on the Federal Level and second hook up with groups in your area to implememnt it on a state level. The latter is in it's infancy in most states. I haven't heard or read of any groups in Washington yet. BTW HR-676 has 92 cosponsors in congress so there is a solid base to build on. In terms of groups you can consult check out Health Care Now www.healthcare-now.org/ . Also checkout Physcians for a National Health Program www.pnhp.org/ . Want the nurses perspective on the matter go to the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committe website www.calnurses.org/Want to see what the newspapers are saying ? news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Single+Payer+Health+Care&btnG=Search+NewsThose are just a few for starters. And returning the deceit a treachery theme there are also massive efforts to derail the Single Payer Movement. A group has been set up by forces aligned with Obama to channel those people who want change into Obama's Individual Mandate Program. The group's name is Healthcare for America Now (HCAN). healthcareforamericanow.org/ It draws on the expertise of some former members of the Single Payer who have since jumped ship. More importantly it draws on the finances of a number well heeled individuals, as well as some unions and lobbying groups who want to suck-up to the Democrat Party's Agenda of pandering to the insurance industry. Right now their war chest stands at 25 million dollars. If you want more detail check out: www.counterpunch.org/redmond10172008.html If you want to hear a debate between Richard Kirsch of HCAN and David Himmelstein of PNHP click this link. www.archive.org/download/DailyDigest-071008/2008_07_10_healthcare.mp3If you want more info on HR-676 checkout this 4 Part Series While what I say might seem depressing there has never been a better opportunity to get Single Payer. Yes our elected officials are buckling under to the Insurance Industry right now but there is strong ground swell for Single Payer Healthcare at the Grassroots Level. Single Payer Healthcare Groups are sprouting up like weeds. Unfortunately there isn't the financial backing behind them to mount a massive public relations campaign. The HCAN Operatives are in exactly the opposite situation. They have a pile of money but little if any popular base of support. We can get Single Payer Healthcare. It won't be easy but we can get it. |
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Post by ki4ivp on Dec 26, 2008 14:04:19 GMT
Great post! I'm an anesthesiologist and have been in practice for 20 years. The first 17 in inner city Columbia, SC and most recently, Columbus, Ohio. I work nights, weekends and holidays taking care of those that they say have "no health care". Don't be fooled! Anyone that walks into a hospital ER gets timely health care 24/7 whether they can pay for it or not. The problem is they have no health care insurance and can't pay. Therefore the rest of us pay in higher premiums etc. The government has been decreasing payment to hospitals and physicians for years by cutting fees through Medicaid and Medicare. Now the government wants to cut some more and then extend Medicare and Medicaid to everyone and call it a single payer system. It will end up costing more to cover everyone. My wife is an RN with 20 years experience, college educated etc. and makes less than an autoworker straight out of high school already. The work force won't be there once we get this government mandated system all set up. Who in their right mind will want to go into health care with poor conditions, poor hours and for little pay. The system needs to be simplified. We jump through enough hoops already just to get an insurance company to pay. Did you know that a doctor must by law pay for an interpreter for any non-english speaking patient that comes to his office? Lets make it fair. Let's ask all businesses to provide goods and services for free for those that can't pay. I don't mean to sound cynical. I do feel good about myself for all that I have done for the sick and dying. I wish I could have spent more time with my wife and kids while they were growing up though. Now I feel better. Mike
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Post by Maui on Dec 26, 2008 19:44:46 GMT
Thank you for your comments! To be included with information sent to the Secretary-Designate Daschle, I will need name and address. International comments are welcome. Please cut - and -paste your comments above and send to phillip.bose@yahoo.com.
I am meeting with my physician and a naturopathic doctor tomorrow. Just the three of us; I did not have a press release in our weekly paper because I could not confirm the large meeting space, and furthermore the weather has been terrible up here; I don't want to be responsible for people going out...
As research for this, I read some items in a 2005 Nature/i] about climate change and health care issues; transportation is a problem in the San Juan Islands as well as Hawaii; and I also see a health-care problem in the attitude that the world is going to end in 2012, Obama will be assassinated, or that global warming is somehow a good thing.
Have a safe weekend!
Phil
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Post by Bob k6tr on Dec 27, 2008 5:33:10 GMT
Great post! I'm an anesthesiologist and have been in practice for 20 years. The first 17 in inner city Columbia, SC and most recently, Columbus, Ohio. I work nights, weekends and holidays taking care of those that they say have "no health care". Don't be fooled! Anyone that walks into a hospital ER gets timely health care 24/7 whether they can pay for it or not. That may be so but the grim reality is 18,000 people in the US die needless every year for lack of health care. Even more shocking people are sufferring or dying because their insurance claims are unjustly denied. The problem is they have no health care insurance and can't pay. Therefore the rest of us pay in higher premiums etc. Actually the insurance companies reemburse the health care providers based upom the procedures they perform and the providers are in not much of a position to dictate the reembursement rates so the providers don't have a mechanism to pass off their losses. When a person without Healthcare Insurance walks into a Doctors Office, or Clinic or Hospital it is those entities that wind up taking it in the shorts. The government has been decreasing payment to hospitals and physicians for years by cutting fees through Medicaid and Medicare. Now the government wants to cut some more and then extend Medicare and Medicaid to everyone and call it a single payer system. It will end up costing more to cover everyone. Medicare as it currently operates pays out for service from a trust fund. Medicaid gets funds from general revenue. Neither of these sources are currently well endowed. Under a Single Payer System the system is funded from both employer payroll and worker income taxes. With the 2 Trillion Dollars that is currently paid in insurance premiums Medicare could be built into a First Class System that would provide Healthcare for all and handsome compensation to providers. For those that are not aware for those that lead a healthy life Health Care Expenditures are comparatively low from ones mid teens through their 40s. As people enter there 50s and 60s Healthcare expenditures go up. So Medicare winds up picking up the tab when people most need it and the Insurance Companies get to collect premiums for several decades with a very low percentage of payouts. In escence what Medicare has become is a vehicle to take the "Money Losers" off the hands of the insurance industry who in turn get to skim the cream. A study done for the Congressional Budget Office estimated that if a Single Payer System were implemented in this country it would result in an immediate savings of 350 Billion Dollars per year. Anyone who has done even a cursory examination of the problem knows the US spends $7100 per person per year and ranks 18th out 18 industrialized nations. That $7100 dollars is twice the average of the 17 countries that finished ahead of it. Money is not the problem ! My wife is an RN with 20 years experience, college educated etc. and makes less than an autoworker straight out of high school already. The work force won't be there once we get this government mandated system all set up. Did you watch the video I posted ? The first part, posted at the top, opens with a narrative from a woman. That woman's name is Roseanne DeMoro. She is the Executive Director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. It is one of the largest Nurses Unions in the country and it has been one of the lead organization advancing Single Payer since 1992. Did you also know that a majority of Physcians favor a Single Payer Healthcare System ? In a study conducted by the University of Illinois Medical Center last winter 2000 Physcians were surveyed. The survey showed that 59% of doctors favored a Single Payer Health Care System while 32% opposed it. That's almost 2 to 1 and up significantly since the last study done in 2002 which found 49% of Physcians favored Single Payer. This was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine as well as Business Week. So more than the nurses back Single Payer. Who in their right mind will want to go into health care with poor conditions, poor hours and for little pay. The system needs to be simplified. We jump through enough hoops already just to get an insurance company to pay. That's why we need Single Payer. The current For-Profit Insurance System in the US operates at 31% Administrative Overhead. Medicare Operates at 4% Administrative Overhead. The Canadian Single Payer System operates at 3% Administrative Overhead. The Socialized Medicine System used by the United Kingdom operates at 1% Administrative Overhead. These figures show how fundamentally out of line the US Healthcare System is. Did you know that a doctor must by law pay for an interpreter for any non-english speaking patient that comes to his office? Lets make it fair. One would hope that doctors and the medical system do everything they can to pair up doctors in communities which they serve so they have adequate communications with their patients. And what I find more curious is why a Doctor would consider a mandate to provide that level of communication such a burden ? Let's ask all businesses to provide goods and services for free for those that can't pay. I don't mean to sound cynical. I do feel good about myself for all that I have done for the sick and dying. I wish I could have spent more time with my wife and kids while they were growing up though. Now I feel better. Mike Ahh here it comes out. "Let's treat healthcare as just another commodity". We don't do that with Fire Depatments which are built up and funded through taxes. The same can be said for Police Departments. But health care is treated like a commodity like buying a pair of shoes. A case could be made for that type of system if the US were an impoverished third world country and could not afford it. But this is the US which has the largest economy in the world and can afford it. There are at least 2 dozen other countries that provide a Single Payer System to their citizens while the US continues to balk. Even the Island Nation of Taiwan with an economy a tiny fraction of the US has recently switched over to a Single Payer System. For all of the hard work the American People do for this country why is it they are treated as serfs. Aren't American people as good as Canadians, or Brits, or French, or Begians, or Japanese or....... ? |
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Post by Maui on Dec 27, 2008 21:28:11 GMT
Our weather is still quite nasty up here, and I am glad I did not put a press release in our weekly newspaper. But I did meet with the operator of our non-profit rural care clinic and two Naturopathic Doctors, and here is what we decided:
1. The cost structure of our entire medical and insurance system is so badly broken that it needs to be socialized. It was recognized that there are political problems, and improvement will be challenging.
[One specific suggestion to reduce costs was to increase the proportion of Primary Care Physicians (in Washington and Oregon, that can include Naturopathic Doctors) and reduce the number of high-priced medical specialists by government educational subsidy.]
2. The greatest opportunity is in wellness care and preventive medicine. This would be politically attractive because it could create jobs in a Public Health Service or other methods.
(A specific suggestion here was to develop programs which encourage healthy high school athletes to become wellness role models.)
***********
A comment on the "Single Payer Plan:" I support this idea in principle, but losing my first wife to cancer taught me a lot about the medical industry. What arguments are there against Single Payer (I did not watch all the videos above)? In an earlier post, I wrote "That statistic of $412 per capita annually for insurance administration represents a lot of JOBS, not just gravy. My wife's company has a medical client. Should she be the one who gets cost-contained?"
And a comment from a friend (whose wife was Head of Nursing at an elderly care home) -- "To me the scariest words I can hear are, ' Hello, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.'"
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Post by ki4ivp on Dec 28, 2008 2:08:39 GMT
I must say that the above comments confirm my suspicions about how poorly a single payer system will work. Those that will be in charge of writing and implementing it are so far removed from medicine that they don't have a clue about how things really work at the patient doctor level. My plan is to retire soon. Mike
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Post by Maui on Dec 28, 2008 17:35:24 GMT
Mike--
Unfortunately, I agree that any kind of "reform" is a long way off.
Our entire economic and political system needs change, and change will only come about with new inputs (redirecting existing resources is too difficult). That's why I support development of cold fusion in hot spot volcanoes to power magnetic levitation trains. The evidence I have is compelling, the costs are minimal, and other nations are moving forward in this area.
My ancestors would be ashamed of how hard the United States tries to be last in the world on everything...
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Post by Bob k6tr on Dec 28, 2008 19:22:01 GMT
I must say that the above comments confirm my suspicions about how poorly a single payer system will work.  The above statements of failure made in the above post were made in the context of the Healthcare System currently in place in this country. That system is a Fee-for-Service Insurance based system. The fact of the matter is a Single-Payer Healthcare System has been implemented successfully in at least 2 dozen countries. It is has a proven track record of providing superior service at far lower cost. There is no reason why it can't be implemented in this country. But yet the American Public is subjected to this incessant drumbeat condemning government as incompetent. How is it then that those other countries can successfully implement Single-Payer ? Are American Government Officials uniquely unqualified ? What has been proven a failure is the Fee-for-Service Insurance based Non-Healthcare System operating in this country Those that will be in charge of writing and implementing it are so far removed from medicine that they don't have a clue about how things really work at the patient doctor level. One of the lead organizations working to implement Single-Payer healthcare in this country is Physcians for a National Health Program. (PNHP) PNHP counts among it's membership 15,000 practicing physcians. Included in it's leadership are two renowned physicians. David Himmelstein MD Professor of Medicine at Harvard University and Marcia Angell MD former Editor for the New England Journal of Medicine. Let no mistake be made the Single-Payer Movement is made up of some of the most knowledgable People in Healthcare. www.pnhp.org/Another fact contrary to your assertion doctor is the book written about Single Payer entitled "Healthcare Meltdown". It is written by Two MDs from very conservative backrounds who came around to the idea the only way this country is going to permamently fix it's Health Care Crisis is to implement a Single-Payer System. Robert LeBow MD was the original author of the book initially published in 2002 by Hood Books. LeBow was involved in a Cycling Accident and lost his life a few years ago. C. Rocky White MD who came to single payer a few years ago picked up the book, updated it and added 2 Chapters of his own. The book is 300 pages long and list for 15 USD. It's ISBN is: 13:978-0-911-469-30-1 My plan is to retire soon. Mike Interesting you should mention that doctor. In a previous post I mentioned the University of Illinois Medical Center Study which found 59% of physician favoring a Single-Payer Health Care System while 32% oppse it. Being curious I poked around to find out the nature of the opposition. The 32% of physicians that oppose Single-Payer fall into two categories. The first is Older Physicians who have become set in their ways and resistant to change. The second group are the Physician who Specialize in highly lucrative disciplines which include Cosmetic Surgeons, Radiologists and Anesthesiologist. |
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Post by ki4ivp on Dec 29, 2008 18:26:25 GMT
I do appreciate you working on the problem, and believe me I want good healthcare when my rainy day arrives. I do make a good income compared to some other specialties and I can't complain about that. Seems like you enjoyed telling me I am in one of the lucrative specialties. Percieved over compensation is a comment that I've heard frequently throughout my career usually from those that are bitter over not being able to get in to medical school. I guess I do make twice as much money as someone that works half the hours as I do. I'm not sure why you would group two hospital based specialties, anesthesia and radiology, with cosmetic surgeons. Cosmetic surgeons are paid in cash two weeks ahead of the procedure. They work Monday through Friday during the daytime. Third party payers don't pay for cosmetic surgery. I don't see cosmetic surgeons joining me in the OR at 2am for an emergency face lift either. Please just don't forget about those of us who actually get our hands bloody. Some of our compensation could be considered combat pay. Mike
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The above statements of failure made in the above post were made in the context of the Healthcare System currently in place in this country. That system is a Fee-for-Service Insurance based system. The fact of the matter is a Single-Payer Healthcare System has been implemented successfully in at least 2 dozen countries. It is has a proven track record of providing superior service at far lower cost. There is no reason why it can't be implemented in this country.