Health Care Reform 2009
Monday, October 13, 2008 at 05:49PM
At some point in time–hopefully before the Social Security System becomes bankrupt–our lawmakers and leaders have to accept the stark reality that a continuation of the same healthcare system that we have been accustomed to in the past is NOT going to work in the years ahead. The system must be totally reformed--restructured in a way that incentives for providers to provide more and more service, whether or not it is medically necessary, have to be removed. Reimbursement must be denied for referral of patients by physicians to entities in which they, the physician-providers, have a financial interest: entities such as laboratories, imaging centers, day surgery units, hospitals, home health agencies; or to entities from which a physician receives a stipend in return for referrals. Joint ventures between hospitals and physicians must be scrutinized thoroughly and should always be transparent insofar as the public is concerned.
If the cost of health care is ever to be contained, the concept that more is better must be abandoned. Likewise, the health insurance industry must abandon the policy of ignoring over-utilization of services by healthcare providers and subsequently raising the premiums, deductibles, and co-pays--to be paid by the insured--when the cost of health care escalates from the medically unnecessary over-utilization of services. The health insurance industry should be mandated to focus on appropriate utilization and quality, instead of on loss ratios.
Basic Healthcare is a right of every person in this country and it should be affordable, available, and accessible. No one should be left uncovered. There should be no denial of benefits based on pre-existing conditions. If anyone is economically underprivileged, healthcare should be available through special federally funded programs. Individuals who elect to avail themselves of unlimited services over and above Basic Healthcare--without concern for whether or not those services are medically necessary--should be privileged to purchase health insurance for that purpose, without compomising the cost of federally funded Basic Healthcare for every resident in the United States.
How do you define Basic Healthcare? It should be rich in practice guidelines for all health care providers to follow in their care of patients, and its structure should reflect a consensus of input from all providers--physicians, hospitals, ancillary free-standing entities, nurses, and ancillary service providers, all of which must be held accountable for the expenditure of the taxpayers' health care dollars.
Is any political candidate or lawmaker brave enough to ignore the overpaid lobbyists and make those changes? If not our broken healthcare system is doomed to self-destruction.
Reader Comments (10)
I agree our healthcare system needs fixed -- and I know lobbyists and special interest groups as well as our legislators are likely to blame. I'm just not sure the best way we can go about this. Universal healthcare hasn't worked in many areas. I appreciate those like you who have worked hard in the medical field and paved a way for others to soon join your ranks. Hopefully, soon, my daughter will be among those.
Sorry, Doctor. You are off the mark, causing confusion for folks like Linda Fulkerson.
After about 6 years of working on this, including the past 2 years,I finally realized in mid-December 2008 (today!) that being solid for non-profit single-payer national health insurance should be no embarrassment to anyone.
Linda, there are lots of people and organizations in the U.S. who would be glad to convince anyone that universal health care has not worked. By the way, keep in mind that "universal health care" now means nothing in the U.S.
What means something is non-profit single-payer national health insurance, which is the best version of non-profit financing of health care.Between the 1880's and 1980's other countries implemented non-profit financing of health care. They've had little or no bureaucracy and high cost-efficiency now for decades, as seen by the dates. In the meantime, the U.S. has lost businesses, lost jobs, lost lives and lost our health, as seen in part by the pain and suffering leading up to those lost lives.
Doctor, you have some excellent inputs about some things, but please join the majority ( over half) of Americans support implementing non-profit single-payer national health insurance.
Best regards,
Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate,
who advocates getting reminders to follow the schedule so that we will influence our U.S. Representatives by our number of participants to get the desired law passed to get the benefits.
Requiem for Doctor Edward Browne by Richard Dean Smith, iUniverse, 2009.
Historical fiction.
When Dr. Browne’s partner retires, his practice is taken over by Dr. Forbes Q. Hazzig, who becomes a zealot for a ‘managed care revolution’ of ‘marketplace medicine.’ Browne and his associate Dr. Kennes receive irrational, discordant information from healthcare experts, consultants and economists. Browne learns that rhetoric of a mass movement must be as erroneous as possible promising a vague, glorious future. Hazzig grows immensely rich and gains enormous power relying on intimidation and coercion.
Joanna Browne’s exhibition of J.M.W. Turner becomes a thrilling success, yet Hazzig’s wife succeeds in eliminating Joanna’s position at East Valley Museum of Art. Joanna must accept a position at a distant university; her absence devastates Browne.
Browne and Kennes discover managed care was based on a Washington bureau hoax, the ‘health maintenance strategy’ of 1973: an irrational mass movement, a mass hysteria. Hazzig plots to humiliate and ruin the two doctors; each threat goes awry. Hazzig is discredited; his illusory wealth collapses.
Reunited with Joanna, Dr. Browne receives a disturbing invitation to return to East Valley to be recognized with Dr. Kennes for their efforts to expose the folly of managed care. Browne is reluctant to relive his lonely, troubled, distressed past.
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