Cosmopolitan Healthcare in the US?

Slavmed is back from a Sabbatical! We just couldn't stay away when all this interesting "healthcare reform" stuff happens!

You all heard that Investor’s Business Daily ( a little to the right!) announced that the handicapped physicist Stephen Hawking “wouldn’t have a chance,” in Britain because the government run National Health Service would consider his life “essentially worthless.”

You do know that Professor Hawking was born in Britain, has lived there all his life. BTW, he expressed that he is quite happy with the care he received.

Proposed Obamacare is not like Britain's system. Faux News is screaming that the plan would turn America into the former Soviet Union. But Paul Krugman (NEW YORK TIMES) says that the plan would turn America into Switzerland, far from a "socialist hellhole".

Every civilized country other than the United States guarantees necessary care to all its citizens. Switzerland relies on private insurance companies, using a combination of regulation and subsidies to ensure that everyone is covered. Everyone is required to buy insurance, insurers can’t discriminate based on medical history or pre-existing conditions, and lower-income citizens get government help in paying for their policies. Short of single payer system, it sounds pretty reasonable, doesn't it?

Swiss-style universal healthcare coverage is so much better than the US status quo. And we already know it works in Switzerland.

So if Obamacare Swissifies America, SlavMed would be out of business. We better start developing new product lines.

Doctors’ Group Opposes Public Insurance Plan

Doctors’ Group Opposes Public Insurance Plan

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: June 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — As the health care debate heats up, the American Medical Association is letting Congress know that it will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan, which President Obama and many other Democrats see as an essential element of legislation to remake the health care system.

Let us know what you think.

Slavmed"

THANKS


Sincerely,

Milla

What kind of healthcare do YOU want?

Remember how Republicans killed Clinton's health care reform? NYT reported that at a closed door Republican strategy session Bob Packwood,(R-OR) said those famous words: " We've killed health care reform, now we've got to make sure our fingerprints are not on ". Are we really better off now?

Remember the cries about "Big Government Democrats Gone Wild"? It sounds familiar because opponents of the reform still repeat it, over and over again. It is mind boggling that people still buy into this crap - even those who are uninsured themselves!

Apparently,the key is to stick to “big lies” –lies so HUGE that they must be true. (Who would dare make up such a whopper and repeat it on television, online or in print?) Distorted language is not meant to provoke thought; it aims to close off thought in order to play on listeners’ emotions.

Why do Republicans refer to Obama’s proposal as a “Washington takeover” of health care? Why do they insist that patients will have to “stand in line” with “Washington bureaucrats in charge of healthcare.”?

Because apparently fear-mongering is an art that pays off. “It could lead to the government setting standards of care, instead of doctors who really know what’s best.It could lead to the government rationing care, making people stand in line and denying treatment like they do in other countries with national healthcare.”

Here the speaker neatly avoids having to offer any evidence. He is not saying that Obama has proposed letting the government set standards or ration care. He is just saying that reform “could” put us on a slippery slope, planting images in the reader’s mind without really claiming that they are true. It “It’s not what you say; it’s what people hear.”

Most Americans recognize that health care has little to do with a free market where sellers compete for customers. Eighty percent of our health care dollars are spent when patients are very sick, they don’t have the luxury of shopping around, and bartering. A patient not likely to tell surgeon A, “if you can’t give me a better price, I’ll go to surgeon B.” The truth is, at best, the patient isn’t looking for the cheapest surgeon; he’s looking for the best surgeon, just as he is looking for the best medication, the best hospital. In reality, the patients go to where their insurance plan offers the best coverage.

Get smart. Don't let the techniques designed to wake up the "group think" in you affect your own judgment. No one in Washington is talking about having the government take over the hospitals, or put doctors on the government’s payroll.

White House has no plans to take over health care. And the last thing politicians want to do is vote on what care people should and shouldn’t receive.

Stem Cell Funding Ban Lifted

President Obama completed a turnaround of Bush administration policy this morning by officially ending a federal ban on funding of stem cell research. "In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," he said, carefully noting that the new rules would not "open the door" for "dangerous, profoundly wrong" human cloning. Obama went out of his way to make clear that under his watch, "We base our public policies on the soundest science" and "appoint scientific advisors based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology." The National Institutes of Health now has 120 days to figure out federal funding guidelines and limitations.
Retrieved March 9, 2009 from http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/
Maybe soon we will not need to travel overseas to find cure for Diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Cancer, spinal cord injuries and other life threatening conditions.
Tell us what you think.

Private Health advocate for insurance woes

Have a health insurance nightmare? Fighting with insurance could be exhausting...

If you simply don't have the time or energy to fight, would you retain a private advocate to battle the bureaucracy? Experts say that even the most complicated claims disputes are often resolved within two weeks with an advocate's help. Would you go this route? let us know by replying to this post.

Our favorite health related blog, Health Care Blog, had an interesting post. Apparently, Obama-Biden Transition Team has encouraged individuals to gather in small groups with friends to discuss their ideas for health care reform so that citizens could provide feedback to health reform czar-designate Tom Daschle.

This clever and witty poem is a product from one of such gatherings:

‘Twas three nights before Christmas, and despite cold and storm

We’d gathered together to talk health care reform.

Clutching Team Obama’s brief questionnaire

We went over each item with scrupulous care.

Middle-class, middle-aged and in the Midwest

With our host’s college kids for reality test.

O’er the country many thousands had signed up for the same

Despite fear “special interests” would come rig the game.

But as we plain folk gathered by the living room fire

We closely read instructions, then vented our ire.

It was plain to us as the new-fallen snow

That insurers existed just to say “no.”

Choosing hospitals and docs? For verification

Our group relied on the best reputation!

While I plumped for more data on quality of care

“You can’t measure,” they said – so I tread lightly there.

(OK, the truth – and please don’t tut-tut

I struggled, alas, to keep my mouth shut.

But praise to the docs there, all credit should be

For their politeness to the lone plaintiff’s attorney.)

We were asked to tell tales that came from our lives

Like self-employed men who hire their wives

In order to become an insurable group –

They still paid big premiums; insurers ain’t dupes.

“Healthier lifestyles and policy?” – we gave that a jab.

It’s mostly your fault that you’ve got so much flab.

(Not being Republicans, we adjured condemnation

We knew of the links ‘tween income and education.)

The role of employers? We cried, “Get them out,”

But decided, “A transition” -- after thinking of clout.

Yes, we had fun, we talked “big picture,” too:

Single-payer, malpractice, and why Americans do

Not think other nations can help us advance --

Though our group had lived in Italy, Russia, the UK and France.

But most of our talk, and most of the clatter

Centered on cost – there’s the heart of the matter.

A woman whose son has a quite rare disease

Spends endless time fighting for care that he needs.

Oftentimes, she must threaten to sue

To get paid for the care she knows is their due.

And this is a woman of much sophistication --

What happens to the less powerful in this, our great nation?

Care’s a “privilege” or a “right”? – those words carry freight.

And so we conducted our own short debate.

“Basic care” for all? Yes, but choices are hard.

Do you get the same care if you have no green card?

Ethics, morality – all very nice

But what Team Obama omitted was any hint of the price.

Will cutting out waste and boosting prevention

Allow painless “reform”? That is the question.

Someone will pay – there is no free lunch.

But “someone,” for now, won’t be our small bunch.

We took a group picture (it’s what was suggested).

We’ll soon review notes (it’s what is expected).

And though Daschle by the “grassroots” has vowed to be led.

No false visions of sugar plums danced in our heads. ‘

Twas three nights before Christmas, but we’ll know Santa was here

When reform becomes law – and as a Cubs fan I believe, this is the year."

We hope you enjoyed this poem. Maybe, you would even consider joining our group for similar discussion. Let us know by replying to this post.

Happy Holidays,

SlavMed Team

Daschle to Head Health and Human Services - Good or bad?

It was announced today that former Senator Tom Daschle is Obama's choice for secretary of health and human services.

Obama previously said that healthcare is “not something that we can put off because we are in an emergency. This is part of the emergency.” The new health czar clearly shares this sense of urgency. He said that “Our growing costs are unsustainable, and the plight of the uninsured is unconscionable.”

But how will all these sentiments translate into practical solutions?

Will the government offer its own health insurance plan, to compete with private plans as the new administration proposed during the campaign? Will the private insurers hold down costs and improve care if they have to compete with a public plan? Or will they simply be driven from the market?

In a meantime, we still find that there is no practical alternative to medical tourism for those who need treatments now.

What do you think?