Tag Archives: health care

Why did health care reform fail? Lack of empathy

Source: The New York Times Continuing with Abigail Trafford’s analysis of health care reform, the next comparison between the Obama and Clinton failures is the ongoing empathy gap. Trafford describes an experience she had with supporters of Clinton’s health reform. In 1994 she traveled with the Health Security Express, a busload of individuals who suffered… Read more

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Why did health care reform fail? Cognitive dissonance

Source: Ohio Daily President Obama was determined to avoid the mistakes of Bill Clinton’s attempt at health care reform. He made sure Congress was heavily involved. He courted the major interest groups – the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, hospitals. And yet it appears reform has failed once again. Abigail Trafford, author and former Washington… Read more

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Why did we shoot ourselves in the foot on health care?

Source: The University of Minnesota Unlike the US, where a turkey dinner is traditionally associated with Thanksgiving, the United Kingdom dines on turkey at Christmas. So when the British or Australians accuse you of acting like “a turkey voting for Christmas,” they mean you’re going against your own best interests. The BBC has a new… Read more

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Daily Dose: Celebrity health; Livestock antibiotics; Transplants

The body as machine Source: The Daily Mail Inventor spends Christmas with his perfect woman – a £30,000 custom-made fembot (The Daily Mail) “Inventor Le Trung spent Christmas Day with the most important woman in his life – his robot Aiko. … Her touch sensitive body knows the difference between being stroked gently or tickled.… Read more

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Daily Dose: Palliative sedation; E. coli in tenderized meat

There’s a long article in Sunday’s New York Times on palliative sedation. I’ve also listed some older stories on the subject and an educational site. Aging, end-of-life, and death Source: The Why Files Hard Choice for a Comfortable Death: Sedation, (The New York Times) “Among those [end-of-life] choices is terminal sedation, a treatment that is… Read more

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This mess we’re in – Part 1

Source: Moore’s Lore After all these months of acrimony and hand-wringing, it appears there will be something called health care reform. It may be equally disappointing to both supporters and opponents, but that comes as no surprise. It’s now abundantly clear that the legislative process is hopelessly inadequate when it comes to things like health… Read more

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Health Culture Daily Dose #18

Source: Wunderground When did we start calling the whole day before Christmas “Christmas Eve?” I thought Christmas Eve was the evening before Christmas. But no. Senators voted on health care reform at 1:00 AM on Thursday December 24th. To me, that’s still Wednesday night, but it was widely reported as happening on Christmas Eve. Perhaps… Read more

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Big Pharma tells Santa: All I want for Christmas

Source: FoundMoney Last week it looked like Big Pharma had won the latest skirmish over importing low cost drugs from Canada and other countries. But the battle isn’t over yet. As FiercePharma told its drug company readers today: “And you thought you could stop worrying about re-importation.” Senator Dorgan’s amendment to the health care reform… Read more

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Campaign contributions and the cost of pharmaceuticals

Source: The Heartland Institute Prescription drugs are much more expensive in the US than they are in other countries. Americans pay 36 percent more than Canadians, on average. We pay 39 percent more than Europeans and 43 percent more than the Japanese. Mevacor, a commonly prescribed statin for lowering cholesterol, costs $200 for 100 pills… Read more

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Accelerate health care reform before it's too late

Source: Infected Tube Paul Starr was a senior advisor for health care reform under President Clinton, and he’s the author of a celebrated history of the American health care system, The Social Transformation of American Medicine. He has weighed in on the current health care debate in a New York Times op-ed piece. In addition… Read more

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Could conservatives reverse health reform in 2013?

Source: About.com, Daniel Kurtzman Maggie Mahar raises a disturbing point about implementing health care reform once a bill makes it through both branches of Congress. In the House version of the bill, the provisions — the public plan, the Exchanges, regulation of private insurers, subsidies — take effect on January 1, 2013. The Senate version,… Read more

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Sin taxes: Financing health care with soda pop

Sourch: On the dash Sugary soft drinks are under attack from obesity experts, health commissioners, nutritionists, Congress, and President Obama. And the soft drink industry is fighting back. Health experts have proposed a tax on soft drinks of one cent per ounce. That’s an extra 12 cents on a 12-ounce bottle of Pepsi, which may… Read more

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The public option has a pulse

Source: xplosive world Commentators are expressing surprise at the resurrection of a public option as part the health care reform package. The main reasons cited for its resurgence are the insurance industry’s recent attack on health care legislation, claiming premiums would rise, and polls indicating that a clear majority of the public supports the public… Read more

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Were "death panels" a teachable moment for palliative care?

Source: Palliative Care Foundation This past summer, thanks in large part to Sarah Palin, we were inundated with sound bites about death panels, pulling the plug on grandma, and saving the government money by dying a little sooner. Palin’s emotionally manipulative Facebook post appeared on August 7. “The America I know and love is not… Read more

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Keith Olbermann & the Fight against Death

The Nose on Your Face The thing about Keith Olbermann is, I tend to agree with his positions far more than I care for his over-the-top, full-of-himself histrionic shtick. So I approached his “Special Commentary” on health care — one hour of nothing but the largest talking head on TV — with both interest and… Read more

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Why is it so hard to reform health care? Rugged individualism

Source: Banning and Low Excellent op-ed piece on health care reform in the Sunday Times. It’s by Roger Cohen, who recently returned from a trip to Germany. Europeans readily acknowledge universal health coverage as a basic right in a civilized society. Americans have great difficulty with this concept. The current health care debate in the… Read more

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A reason for health care reform

Image: Jordan Maxwell We all know why Liberals want to make health care available for all Americans. Liberals have bleeding hearts and a proclivity for redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. They would agree with Peter Montague that “the growing gap between rich and poor has not been ordained by extraterrestrial beings. It… Read more

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Will Ferrell, MoveOn.Org use humor to support health care reform

Can sarcastic humor make a convincing case for health care reform? Will Ferrell, the comedian, and MoveOn.org, the liberal political advocacy organization, are giving it a try. They’ve created a video that defends beleaguered insurance company executives. The video is available on YouTube and features well known celebrities. The cast, the humor, and Internet-only availability… Read more

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Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: The health care shell game

Source: Tax Tea Party When it comes to health care reform, there are moral issues and financial issues. If there are indeed 46.3 million Americans without health insurance; if 45,000 people die every year from preventable causes because they have no health insurance; if the US ranks 21st out of the 21 wealthiest nations on… Read more

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Acne, allergy, and toe nail fungus make you uninsurable

Source: The Long-Term Care Company One reason we need health care reform is the insurance industry practice of canceling or refusing insurance coverage. Since insurance companies are profit-making endeavors, it’s understandable that they don’t want to insure someone with a history of cancer, diabetes, or even arthritis. What about those people who truly believe they’ve… Read more

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How Australia does preventive health care

Source: textually.org The Australian government is about to introduce a number of public health measures dealing with smoking, alcohol, and obesity. The measures are designed to reduce chronic diseases and make Australia the world’s healthiest nation by 2020. Australia’s National Preventative Health Taskforce has published a report that includes 174 recommendations for preventing disease. Among… Read more

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Why is it so hard to reform health care? Political structure

Source: Amazon A country’s health care system reflects its character, ethics, and cultural values. Politics, medicine, and economics may shape the particular design of a system, but when it comes to deciding who will be included, that’s a moral question. The United States is the only industrialized democracy that does not guarantee health care to… Read more

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Why is it so hard to reform health care? The historical background

Some segments of the American population receive excellent health care. Statistics on their life expectancy, mortality, and risk factors for disease compare favorably to citizens of other advanced countries. What throws off the numbers for the US — the reason our overall statistics are 23 points behind Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan on a… Read more

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Your insurance industry at work

Source: State of the Division Here’s something about health care reform that can unite the Left and the Right. They should find this equally offensive. The one Congressional committee that has yet to agree on its legislative reform plan is Max Baucus’ Senate Finance Committee. An 18-page summary (PDF) of what we can expect was… Read more

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The health care debate: Seeing ourselves through the eyes of others

Source: The Guardian I wonder if the behavior of Europeans is restrained by a desire to maintain their self-image in the eyes of neighboring countries. Is there social pressure in France to avoid outrageous behavior because your nation would immediately be ridiculed by England and Germany? Does national pride operate as a constraint? That certainly… Read more

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After health care reform, will Big Insurance be the enemy of Big Food?

Source: eHow Michael Pollan has a great editorial in today’s New York Times on Big Insurance and Big Food. Could health care reform motivate the insurance industry to lobby for healthier food? The argument goes like this. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of health care dollars are spent on preventable… Read more

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Kennedy's posthumous letter, Obama on American character, a Congressman's apology

Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina Source: The New York Times Two years ago, when Democrats were preparing for the presidential primaries, a liberal political expert advised against discussing health care for the uninsured. Everyone loves to say they care about the issue, he said. No one – with the possible exception of Ted Kennedy… Read more

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