Here’s the third and last installment from the documentary Money-Driven Medicine. The topics this time focus on the financial issues of health care: Insurance premiums, competitive hospitals, the control of medicine by profit-driven corporations, the disconnect between money and health. The first and second installments are in previous posts. Is it possible for opponents and… Read more
Tag Archives: health care
Doctors in the trenches speak out – Part two
Here’s a second installment from the documentary Money-Driven Medicine. The producer, Alex Gibney, is an Oscar-winning filmmaker (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room). See the previous post for the first installment. Bill Moyers: “Money-Driven Medicine is one of the strongest documentaries I have seen in years and could not be more timely. The more… Read more
Doctors in the trenches speak out – Part One
I grow weary of the politics of health care reform. Powerful interest groups buy the politicians. The need to get re-elected takes precedence over the national interest. Paul Krugman writes: “Actually turning this country around is going to take years of siege warfare against deeply entrenched interests, defending a deeply dysfunctional political system.” My sympathies… Read more
What's next for health care reform? Reconciliation
Source: Gearlog Optimists predict that media coverage of Senator Kennedy’s death will shame Republicans into changing their opposition to health care reform. Nicholas Lemann, writing in the New Yorker, says, “Kennedy’s death … will cost Obama a vote in the Senate, but this may be outweighed–is it too much to hope?–by the good feeling that… Read more
A reason not to marry: Medical bankruptcy
Source: Canadian Family Physician If you’re a middle-class family and you learn that your beloved spouse is going to require long-term care, do you know what hospital social workers recommend? Get divorced. Otherwise you’ll go bankrupt. And do it as soon as you can. It takes five years after a divorce before your assets are… Read more
Why is it so hard to reform health care? National identity
Source: Teachers.net Documentaries, such as Sicko and Sick Around the World, visit other countries and ooh and ahh over their rational, effective, and equitable health care systems. Why is it that France, Italy, Japan, the UK, Canada – all the major developed countries – have managed to solve the problem of guaranteeing affordable health care… Read more
Should Obama have pitched health care differently? Will Kennedy's death make a difference?
Source: The AV Club “Obama surely has made mistakes, among them focusing so heavily on how reform would reduce the cost of medicine. Had he spent more time reminding voters that reform would provide them with the security they now lack–security from financial ruin and medical catastrophe, the type private insurance too rarely provides–he probably… Read more
Edward Kennedy: Healthcare is a fundamental right, not a privilege
Source: WTRF Some tributes to Senator Edward Kennedy and some honest recollections and assessments. Ezra Klein in The Washington Post: “Year after year, decade after decade, he labored to pass health-care reform. He sought deals with Republican presidents, with Democratic presidents, and even pursued the office himself. He tried to cut out the health-care industry… Read more
Are insurance co-ops a reasonable alternative to the public option?
Source: The Washington Post Dan Roam’s visual presentation of the issues involved in health care reform lists three possible options for health insurance: Private insurance, non-profit insurance exchanges or co-ops, and a government insured plan (the “public option”). There’s been much media speculation lately that the public option is now out of the picture. There… Read more
Why is it so hard to reform health care? The issues are complex
One reason it’s so hard to make progress on health care reform is that it’s an extremely complex problem. Although President Obama does an excellent job of articulating the issues simply and clearly, it appears his message is not getting through clearly enough. Dan Roam, a business consultant and the author of The Back of… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #16
Here are some things I’ve come across recently. Categories include: Aging/End of Life/Death, Doctors, Influenza, Genetics, and Health Care Reform. AGING, END OF LIFE, AND DEATH End-of-Life Care: Where Ethics Meet Economics (The New York Times – Uwe Reinhardt) Health spending in the United States has doubled every 10 years during the last four decades.… Read more
Health care: Reminding people of death triggers irrational emotions
Source: The Associated Press Sharon Begley, science writer for Newsweek, has written one of the best articles I’ve seen so far on the acrimony of the current health care debate. It’s not about the politics, which are unpredictable. It’s an analysis of the underlying psychology, which will not easily be changed. I recommend reading the… Read more
Contempt and compassion: The noncompliant patient
Source: Salvation Army “After I had berated the patient for his obvious failure to comply with my recommendations to correct his ‘misbehavior,’ he said, ‘You know, doctor, there is more to life than good health.’ These words have helped me rein in my sometimes overzealous attempts to force patients into that glorious state of wellness… Read more
‘Mad Men,’ the sixties and the culture war over health carepolitics
Source: The Insider The current emotional polarization around health care reform is not so much about specific issues – rising medical costs, reprehensible insurance industry practices, the number of uninsured. It reflects a deep division in American culture that began in the sixties. Forty years after Woodstock, it’s clear that a major shift happened in… Read more
Real men don’t use doctors
Source: Defending the truth Too much machismo can be bad for a man’s health. A recent study finds that the John Wayne/Sylvester Stallone types are half as likely as their less “macho” counterparts to visit a doctor for preventive health care. The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association on… Read more
The tactics of health care opponents may discredit their message
Source: Telegraph After all the recent media coverage of angry crowds at town hall meetings who oppose health care reform, it’s a relief to come across a reassuring piece of journalism from a neutral source. Reuters reports that the entire ruckus will probably not make any difference in the broader debate on health issues. The… Read more
Waste, Fraud, Abuse and the Mafia
Source: Silive.com One of the arguments against health care reform is the government’s inability to run an efficient and financially sound business. Government bureaucracies are considered breeding grounds for waste, fraud, and abuse. Here’s a typical complaint I found online: “The Government Loses Over $200 Billion A year To Medicare/Medicaid Fraud!!!! Should they be taxing… Read more
Without the public option, it's not health care reform
Source: Psychic Medium Rare Howard Dean is not one of my favorite politicians, but he has a good point about leaving the public option out of health care reform. Dean and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, both MDs, were interviewed last night on the Charlie Rose Show. Towards the end of the interview, Rose… Read more
Health care reform: Politics and substance
Source: The health care mess With health care reform reduced to a sporting event – or as Hendrik Hertzberg calls it in the latest New Yorker, a brawl — I sometimes find myself wishing I lived in a benevolent dictatorship. (Just kidding.) As President Obama pointed out in his press conference on health care last… Read more
Obama's press conference: Health care as a herd of rhinos
Source: Nick Brandt Click photo for larger view. My favorite conservative columnist, David Brooks, responded to Barack Obama’s press conference on health care this week with a piece that characterizes rising costs as a “stampede of big ugly rhinos. They are trampling your crops, stomping on your children’s play areas and spoiling your hunting grounds.”… Read more
Congress finds health insurance industry fundamentally flawed
Source: Hogue News After a year investigating practices of the health insurance industry, a Congressional committee chaired by Representative Henry Waxman concluded that the system is “fundamentally flawed.” Regulations governing insurance are a mishmash of state and federal laws. The insurance industry takes advantage of inconsistencies to engage in “controversial practices.” According to the federal… Read more
Why health insurance isn't there when you need it most
Source: National Public Radio Robin Beaton, a retired nurse from Waxahachie, Texas, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2008. Fortunately she had health insurance. Three days before she was scheduled for double mastectomy surgery, however, Blue Cross cancelled her insurance. The company claimed she had once seen a doctor for acne… Read more
The Sicko files
Source: Bill Moyers Journal Wendell Potter, who was once the head of Public Relations at health insurance giant CIGNA, recently testified before Congress on the nefarious practices of the insurance industry. Last Friday he did an extended interview with Bill Moyers. In the video excerpt below, Moyers and Potter discuss the insurance industry’s comprehensive strategy… Read more
Will health care reform stop the rising cost of health care?
As we get into the nitty-gritty of health care reform, critcs from both left and right are asking whether current proposals will reduce costs. Here we have a historic opportunity to make major changes in health care, but it appears no one is willing to address the problem of escalating costs. The public insurance option… Read more
Importing drugs from Canada: Will lobbyists win or lose this round?
Artist: Robert Parada. Source: AARP When a government is directly involved in health care, the sheer size of its purchasing power allows it to negotiate lower prices for drugs. That’s why drugs cost less in Canada over the Internet. In the US, drug company lobbying is so powerful that it can convince Congress to prohibit… Read more
Where does the health care money go?
Source: Newsweek Well, some of it goes to pay executives at health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Here are some income figures for top executives at leading health insurance companies. The numbers are for total compensation in 2008, obtained from proxy statements required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The total compensation includes base salary,… Read more
Big Pharma lobbies against health reform: Big time
Source: Stop Barack Obama According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the pharmaceutical industry spent $1.2 million a day on lobbying during the first quarter of this year. Not surprisingly, the biggest spender has been the largest pharmaceutical lobbying group, PhRMA, which has spent $7 million. Pfizer was a close second at $6 million. Meanwhile,… Read more
Getting health care right: Paris and Amsterdam
Source: Forbes Jonathan Cohn, senior editor at The New Republic, has an article in today’s NY Times on what we can learn from the health systems of other countries. Republican opponents of health care reform are fond of saying: “I don’t want America to begin rationing care to their citizens in the way these other… Read more
Don't trust the insurance industry
Source: The Negotiation Academy Paul Krugman’s advice to Congress when it comes to health care reform: 1) Don’t trust the insurance industry. 2) Don’t trust the insurance industry. In a NY Times editorial, Krugman recalls how conservative Bill Kristol, in 1993, urged Republicans to oppose any significant health care reform. He did, however, advocate simplifying… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #15
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (A public option plan emerges from HELP committee; Arguments for the public option from the Urban Institute; Obama stands Harry & Louise on their heads) Health news (Should Steve Jobs use his celebrity status for pancreatic cancer awareness and funding?) Industrialized agriculture (Labeling organic food: What can you believe?;… Read more