Impeding changes to our Health Care system

Originally Posted by SamIam

Thanks, Merc. We are often on opposite sides of the question, but we can agree that this article makes a number of excellent points and some good suggestions. I would be interested in what Redux would say about it.

(Hint: Read the Atlantic article, Redux)

Its an interesting article and offers a self-described generational solution (in very general terms and little in the way of details) that I would agree with in many respects.

Where I would disagree most is the author's suggestion to minimize the government role. Without regulation, IMO, it is a pipe dream to think that a free market approach would put consumer care above profit....be it insurance companies, hospitals or private practitioners.

And because the current system is so entrenched, I think it would be incredibly disruptive in the short-term and likely to be multi-generational, taking decades...far longer than the author suggests. And the article offers little in the way of policy proposals to address the short-term or the interim long-term period in order to get there from here.

SO my concerns is what to do in the meantime and I think the current proposals, beyond the immediate relief to those uninsured and greater security to those with employer-based insurance, also include some consumer-based remedies that move in the right direction (ie rewarding prevention, greater quality control, reducing systemic redundancies, greater information sharing on best practices, etc.)

Bottom line...if we were starting with a clean slate, it might be a good approach, even if it is bit "pie in the sky".

But that is not the case, and IMO, we need to address the shortcomings with the current system while at the same time, moving towards a more efficient and equitable "care over cost" system in the long term.

[classicman]

Tonight, Sherrod Brown (D-RI) was sent out in front of the cameras to Keith Olbermann's show to try and sell "Countdown's" liberal audience on how all of their hard work has produced a terrific healthcare bill, which will remain terrific even without a public insurance option to compete with the private ensurers who will now have 30 million Americans commanded by buy their products, and now, without a Medicare buy-in for those over 55. Brown didn't look like he quite believed what he was saying. Talking Points Memo, meanwhile, reports that perfunctory White House denials notwithstanding, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel did indeed press Harry Reid to cut a healthcare deal with Joe Lieberman, and to give him whatever he wants:

An aide briefed on discussions with the White House says that there would be no story if Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel hadn't interceded. The aide confirmed an account, reported by Huffington Post, that Emanuel visited Reid personally, telling him to cut a deal with Lieberman.

Then the aide provided more detail. Emanuel didn't just leave it to Reid to find a solution. Emanuel specifically suggested Reid give Lieberman the concessions he seeks on issues like the Medicare buy-in and triggers. "It was all about 'do what you've got to do to get it done. Drop whatever you've got to drop to get it done," the aide said. All of Emanuel's prescriptions, the source said, were aimed at appeasing Lieberman--not twisting his arm. This is the second Senate aide to provide nearly identical accounts of the White House's intervention. It seems very much as if officials there desperately want the Senate to pass a bill, at all costs.

Link

[Shawnee123]

Tonight, Sherrod Brown (D-RI)

Where'd you get that link, because, um...Sherrod Brown is an Ohio senator.

http://brown.senate.gov/

[classicman]

Thanks Sam -

After the needless death of his father, the author, a business executive, began a personal exploration of a health-care industry that for years has delivered poor service and irregular quality at astonishingly high cost. It is a system, he argues, that is not worth preserving in anything like its current form. And the health-care reform now being contemplated will not fix it. Here’s a radical solution to an agonizing problem.

Link
An article with some great insight which mirrors my personal experiences with "the system" as well.

[Shawnee123]

Oh, there you added the link for post 1489.

FAIL link!

[SamIam]

It worked for me.

[SamIam]

Anyhow, I liked the point made in Atlantic Monthly that in our current system, health care providers are not really accountable to the consumer. Its either private insurance or Medicare/Medicaid that pays the bill and hospitals cater to Medicare's will rather than concentrating on providing quality service to the patient.

Implicit in this article is that the author's father contracted an infection due to poor hygene practices on the part of ICU personnel. This is an outrage and appears to be true when you read the author's documentation. Our health care service is a mess, and it doesn't sound to me that the reforms being contemplated really address the pertinent issues.

[classicman]

Link works for me. I noticed that MSNBC got that wrong initially and it wasn't corrected by salon either. Guess thats the excellence in our media shining through . . . again.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by classicman

Link works for me. I noticed that MSNBC got that wrong initially and it wasn't corrected by salon either. Guess thats the excellence in our media shining through . . . again.

No, the link worked, I just find such a glaring error in the first sentence to be a big fail as far as making me say "egads! Say it isn't so!"

I am unable to find a corresponding MSNBC article.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I am unable to find a corresponding MSNBC article.

Thats because it wasn't in an article, it was on live TV - Keith Olbermans show.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

Keith Olberman's show incorrectly introduced him as a Democrat from Rhode Island? Link?

Originally Posted by classicman

it wasn't in an article, it was on live TV - Keith Olbermans show.

I have no link - I saw it. Sheesh.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

tw sure is right about you sometimes...
I point out a glaring error. You dance and skate and can't concede your Chicken Little tendencies.
Just admit it was a bad point?

I watched the show personally, I saw it. But that wasn't the main point of posting the artivle. His opinions were. Whether he was from Ohio , Rhode Island or East Jabip, is inconsequential. If it makes it easier to discuss what he actually said instead of that, fine. I must have what I saw.

Originally Posted by Redux

Classic will find small issues to nitpick, as long as it is critical of the Democrats...then duck and weave when called out on the facts or the lack of context in their endless links.
Or they will just call you a partisan.

Sorry pal - thats not my game. Aside from you being admittedly partisan. You, however, have been doing it more and more lately though. (Look in a mirror) And please stop grouping people together. Take each of us on our own for what we each say and do.
I found an article with information I thought of value and posted it for discussion. Both you and Shaw have glossed over the point of the article and tried to, how did you put it "duck and weave." Instead of discussing what the content was, you focus on a totally insignificant point.

Its easy to nitpick the health care reform. The process and the results have been far from perfect.

We certainly agree upon that.

And the results, when enacted, are that 30+ million of those currently uninsured will have access to affordable health care.
and by most objective analyses, they wont see their health care costs continue to rise at unmanageable rates.

I disagree wholeheartedly with respect to the costs and history will bear me out as being correct. There is not one Gov't program of this significance that didn't cost infinitely more than proposed and deliver far less. The numbers are and will be manipulated and shown in the best light possible for the benefit of whomever is making their point.

[Shawnee123]

Anyhow, the link and the article are bogus.

Sorry to point out the error: I thought we was all about the correctin'

Guess that is the excellence in discerning readers shining through, again.

[Shawnee123]

Keith Olberman's show incorrectly introduced him as a Democrat from Rhode Island? Link?

[classicman]

Mersa was contracted in the ICU when a family member was there. Within 24 hrs there were 8 other patients in the same ward testing positive for the virus.