The Health Care Asylum
When Government and Media Fill a Void
If all you did was read the press recently this is what you would learn the "reason" why healthcare is in trouble in America:
I bring these up, not to point out the NY Sun's expertise in reporting healthcare (not) but only that these are common complaints and were so noted in this article. Unfortunately, solutions are rarely offered in these reports.
One of the big problems we are having is connecting problems with solutions. Here is what the Asylum inmates are saying now:
If you pay bonuses to hospitals and doctors that score well on quality and price measures this will work. Brain dead. The Harvard researchers who preached this should be ashamed of themselves. Maybe they should move to Yale instead. Here's a reality check for Ivy League researchers- insurers don't want to pay. They not only don't pay doctors and hospitals market value, they don't want to pay at all. Ever. They will delay payments and rachet down payments to squeeze out more stockholder value. They certainly will not pay "bonuses." In New York, Oxford Health Plans has not raised any of its reimbursement for 6 years. Not even covering inflation.
Paying market level is NOT A BONUS.
Also- who defines a quality measure? The National Council of Quality Assurance (NCQA) rates health plans on things like pediatric immunization and pap smears. This means that an HMO can hire Vin Diesel to blow up San Francisco but if he immunizes the 3 surviving children and does a pap smear on their mother The Vin Diesel HMO scores high in NCQA ratings. Nice job. Pin a medal on his chest and sign me up.
A small percentage of the gross profit of American insurance companies can pay for the healthcare of the uninsured for 17 consecutive decades. Anyone ever think of that as an idea? That is a little too complex for the current "Abramoff Congress"- Democrats and Republican who have their heads so far up the insurance company lobby's rear that the sun won't shine on the backdoor of healthcare for eons to come.
Certainly there are answers out there but in the end, everyone thinks it's the doctors, hospitals, and patients that are ruining health in America- it is actually the overregulation and the raping of the system by greedy insurers, pharmaceuticals and failure of the lobby-controlled government to act responsibly.
In a truly superb book, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise, five points were noted by authors John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel P. Kessler:
These are clear and concise suggestions. So what does the Government and the Press say about this? Nothing. They just heap blame on anyone EXCEPT insurance companies.
The uninsured will not magically awake to insurance one day. Doctors do not charge too much for services. Hospitals really do care about the health of patients. Hello.
Years ago, healthcare rooms were filled with caring doctors, nurses and hospitals. Someone thought that while this clinical room was full, the finance rooms and regulations rooms were a bit empty. We then filled them with criminally insane insurance executives, Senators, and Congressmen that control healthcare in America like Nurse Ratchet in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Where is McMurphy when you need him?
Dr. K.
Related Topics: Doctors Malpractice Fears Hurt Healthcare, Washington's Health Agenda At Odds With Voters
Technorati Tags: healthcare, reform, medicare
"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people"Nature abhors a vacuum. For years I never understood that line. I always thought that it meant that if you suck everything up there will be nothing left for anyone else and you will be hated. That, of course is not nature and a vacuum but the American insurance industry- sucking up all that is left of healthcare dollars. What I have learned over the years is that if an important thing is left unattended, then it will be attended to by default- usually by the least qualified. This leads us to the obvious- The Government and the press are waging a war they call healthcare reform with no clue as to the problems or the solutions. Our healthcare reform vacuum is being filled by the vacuous. Heaven help us.
Eugene Pallette in 'My Man Godfrey'
If all you did was read the press recently this is what you would learn the "reason" why healthcare is in trouble in America:
- An unacceptable number of people are uninsured
- American medicine generates tens of thousands of fatal errors yearly
- We have a shorter life expectancy that the British, French, German, Canadians, and Japanese
- 16% of our resources go into healthcare
- There is over 700 billion dollars of waste in American medicine
I bring these up, not to point out the NY Sun's expertise in reporting healthcare (not) but only that these are common complaints and were so noted in this article. Unfortunately, solutions are rarely offered in these reports.
One of the big problems we are having is connecting problems with solutions. Here is what the Asylum inmates are saying now:
If you pay bonuses to hospitals and doctors that score well on quality and price measures this will work. Brain dead. The Harvard researchers who preached this should be ashamed of themselves. Maybe they should move to Yale instead. Here's a reality check for Ivy League researchers- insurers don't want to pay. They not only don't pay doctors and hospitals market value, they don't want to pay at all. Ever. They will delay payments and rachet down payments to squeeze out more stockholder value. They certainly will not pay "bonuses." In New York, Oxford Health Plans has not raised any of its reimbursement for 6 years. Not even covering inflation.
Paying market level is NOT A BONUS.
Also- who defines a quality measure? The National Council of Quality Assurance (NCQA) rates health plans on things like pediatric immunization and pap smears. This means that an HMO can hire Vin Diesel to blow up San Francisco but if he immunizes the 3 surviving children and does a pap smear on their mother The Vin Diesel HMO scores high in NCQA ratings. Nice job. Pin a medal on his chest and sign me up.
A small percentage of the gross profit of American insurance companies can pay for the healthcare of the uninsured for 17 consecutive decades. Anyone ever think of that as an idea? That is a little too complex for the current "Abramoff Congress"- Democrats and Republican who have their heads so far up the insurance company lobby's rear that the sun won't shine on the backdoor of healthcare for eons to come.
Certainly there are answers out there but in the end, everyone thinks it's the doctors, hospitals, and patients that are ruining health in America- it is actually the overregulation and the raping of the system by greedy insurers, pharmaceuticals and failure of the lobby-controlled government to act responsibly.
In a truly superb book, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise, five points were noted by authors John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel P. Kessler:
- The tax law needs to be changed to reduce the preference for medical-care purchases through employer-based insurance.
- Health insurance regulation needs reforming.
- Health information needs to flow more freely.
- Hospitals, doctors, and insurers need to control anticompetitive behavior. (a corollary is that the government needs to free them in the free market)
- Reform the malpractice system.
These are clear and concise suggestions. So what does the Government and the Press say about this? Nothing. They just heap blame on anyone EXCEPT insurance companies.
The uninsured will not magically awake to insurance one day. Doctors do not charge too much for services. Hospitals really do care about the health of patients. Hello.
Years ago, healthcare rooms were filled with caring doctors, nurses and hospitals. Someone thought that while this clinical room was full, the finance rooms and regulations rooms were a bit empty. We then filled them with criminally insane insurance executives, Senators, and Congressmen that control healthcare in America like Nurse Ratchet in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Where is McMurphy when you need him?
Dr. K.
Related Topics: Doctors Malpractice Fears Hurt Healthcare, Washington's Health Agenda At Odds With Voters
Technorati Tags: healthcare, reform, medicare
5 Comments:
If the insurance Companies were making so much money then why is Medicare and Medicade not having tons of extra money. I think your point of view evades the real problems. What are these insurance companies names? Perhaps we should all invest in the top 5 of these and then we all will make the big bucks. I think a better solution would to put $ in hands of people and have a market based reform.
But what can we do, as consumers? I spent a frustrating two years dealing with medical error, insurance and all that was bad about the medical system. I want to support reform. I want to make sure the horror that happend to my mother does not happen to others. How can we productively make change good for the care givers and the care users?
Judy
gag@judyanddan.com
I agree with Judy'd comment on what can we do as consumers? I myself am going thru the same situation. I have no health insurance and have applied for state aid and have been denied 3 times. I'm 31yrs.old and have Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease. I've seen 3 surgeons and finally the last one says I need a fusion. Eventhough I've gone thru a funding program, the surgery is so expensive and I haven't worked since the fall of 2003. I just can't understand why we can give people who abuse the system assistance and for people like me who need it, can't get a darn thing. This would help me get back on my feet and back into the working establishment. I just feel that my state or any others for that matter, doesn't care about others who aren't financially stable with money or healthcare, and just think that our govenors are right. They aren't in our foot steps. They have the life they want, and like me, I have to suffer since the state assistance won't help me. It wouldn't be so bad that if the uninsured have been covered under 17 decades, why can't they help out the people who need it now. We are using our money for everything in IRAQ, and for the victims in the hurricanes. I agree with alot of the politics on that, but what about the healthcare that us uninsured people can't afford to get help or have something done. I just think we are being pushed to the curb and left out to dry.
i am with you i ask for help for my son who fell over 30 feet and exploded his back he has 16 screws and rods holding his back together but could not get any help. i feel your pain. i was in a car wreck in 1993 now i suffer from degenerative disk disease i just had fusion in my neck in january 2007 c5, c6, c7 with cage. i am now looking at surgery for my low back. Believe me i know your pain!!!! its so bad sometimes you cant stand to be in the room with your self. i wish you all the luck and to let you know you are not alone there are more of us out there. The way things look i will probably try to go for ssi. ha ha if your rich you can get anything if your poor or middle class your out of luck. i wrote to the governor saying the same thing you said if we can help other countries and victums from hurrican why cant we help our own people.
old lady in pain
douglasville ga
Glad to see I am not alone in pain. 36 y/o female scoliosis, 4 degenerated disks and arthritis. I have been off work for over a year now and unable to get any help anywhere. Pain so bad daily that I cry. It is aweful to say but sometimes I wish people could "see" my disability and understand my pain. Because i don't look deformed in clothes they can't understand that this effects every aspect of my life. I would love to get 2 hours of uninterupted sleep.
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