July 24th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements
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From July 26-29 I’ll be in Chicago at the annual BlogHer conference. BlogHer is a community of women bloggers determined to make the world a better place. Revolution Health is proud to be a sponsor of BlogHer this year, and I’ve been asked to moderate a break out session contained within the “Earn Our Votes: What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008?” session. Revolution Health is non-partisan, and my role as moderator is to facilitate sincere discussion.
The break out session is 25 minutes long, and the goal is to distill all the important healthcare questions into only 3 key questions that women would like to ask presidential hopefuls about healthcare. In order to get the discussion going, I’ll present a list of questions featured recently on YouTube and in the BlogHer blogs. Please feel free to add questions in the comments section of this blog, and we’ll discuss them in Chicago on Saturday. Hope to see you there!
References
The recent CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate featured the following healthcare questions:
- How will your healthcare plan address the needs of the aging population, specifically those with Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes?
- What will your healthcare plan do to address the need for affordable preventive medicine services?
- Does your healthcare plan cover undocumented workers?
- How do you intend to make sure that all Americans have some form of health insurance?
Various posts from the BlogHer conference blog:
Affordability / Universality
- How can we pay for healthcare in US sustainably?
- How can we make sure that anyone in the US not only has access to healthcare, but can afford it?
- How do we weed out those who choose not to have healthcare from those who desperately need it?
- How can we make healthcare a right, not a privilege, for every citizen?
- How can we mandate that all children in the US are insured?
- How do we protect families from insurance companies who deny claims in the face of a health crisis?
Women’s Issues
- How can we ensure increased access to family planning?
- How do we get birth control to be covered universally under health insurance policies?
- How do we achieve “scientific fairness” to women?
- How can we make women’s and children’s health issues a priority?
- How do we improve health education for women and children?
- How can we make childbirth and maternity leave less of a burden for working mothers? Especially as disability insurance is not offered to all nor is it usually enough. Women can afford to take time off after having a child.
- Can a woman’s reproductive rights be protected in US healthcare?
Ethics / Technology
- How can we ensure everyone has the same access to the same tests and treatments?
- How can we protect research, such as stem cell research, that has the possiblity to wipe out diseases?
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
July 23rd, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Opinion
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Many European countries have “presumed donor policies” where (unless otherwise stipulated) the untimely demise of one of its citizens results in potential organs for those on organ transplant waiting lists. In other words, the default assumption is that you want to be an organ donor should you die in an accident.
Britain is now undergoing internal debate over whether or not to institute a presumed donor policy. On the “no” side is Scotland and the Conservatives – suggesting that the government has no right to an individual’s remains. On the “yes” side are the Liberals and the British Medical Association – reminding the “no’s” that people are free to opt out, and that studies show that 70% of people have not formally registered to donate their organs even though they state that their wish would be to donate their organs in the event of sudden death.
Spain has been very successful with their presumed donor policy – doubling organ donations after enacting it into law. Austria quadrupled their organ donations after following suit.
I think that Europe’s presumed donor policy is a good idea and I would personally endorse a similar policy in the US, so long as next of kin had veto power. What do you think?This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
July 20th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Policy
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Dinah at Shrink Rap had all her Medicare billing sheets returned to her this week. She had neglected to use the new forms with “red dropout ink.” These forms are not provided by Medicare, but must be purchased by the psychiatrist from a government or commercial printer. Good luck figuring out which parts of the form you’ll need, Dinah – seems as if there are many different versions (snapouts, continuation sheets, single sheets, part 1 and part 2) and they’ll cost you more than a few psychotherapy sessions will be reimbursed (not to mention the time you spend re-filling them out).
I suppose that if you do the math, it might be easier to just pay your patients to go elsewhere? The red tape (in this case “red ink”) never ceases to amaze me. Anyone else struggling with this problem?This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
July 19th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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There was a very interesting case report in the New England Journal of Medicine this week. A 25 year old woman went bungee jumping and wound up with sudden decreased vision in one eye. As it turned out, the sudden yank of the bungee cord (while being upside down) caused an increase in pressure in her eye ball (kind of the way the Heimlich maneuver can), and broke one of the blood vessels in the back of her eye. Luckily she had surgery to remove the blood and recovered nearly normal vision in that eye a week later.
If I ever felt tempted to go bungee jumping, this case cured my curiosity. How about you?This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
July 18th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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ABC news created an online photo album of the actors from the movie The Princess Bride. They display headshots of the actors from 20 years ago (when the film was created) beside a current image. It was a real eye-opener for me, seeing how these people have changed in appearance over the years – though in all fairness, ABC didn’t choose the most flattering follow up pictures. Nicer ones are displayed in the link to the movie above.
Nonetheless, this raises the issue of aging – and what each of us will look like in 20 years. I think a lot of it depends on the little choices we make each day – what we eat, if we exercise, if we’re stressed, if we have loving relationships in our lives… these little things add up and imprint themselves on our faces and bodies for all to see. What will your body say about you in 20 years? Mine’s going to have a lot of laugh lines, and probably a good deal of cellulite… ahem. But I’m going to keep aiming towards the leafy green veggies and regular exercise. If you’d like to join me, you’ll find some helpful programs right here at Revolution Health.
Bonus Link: My friend Tony Via suggested this link to fake celebrity makeovers (someone took the time to create how they might look as “normal” overweight Americans – thank you, Photoshop). Quite entertaining – and more fuel for the “eat right and exercise” plan.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
