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Some Good Things About Healthcare Reform

The large healthcare bill has some very good elements in it that should help the average American.

One is a provision that will kick in in 2011 that says all health insurers will need to spend 85 percent of the premium dollar on actually providing care. This means people may actually receive benefits they pay for. What a concept! Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

WellPoint CEO Now Earns $13.1 Million A Year

Corporate Hall of Shame Award

With the United States undergoing the worst recession since the Great Depression and people everywhere worried about the cost of healthcare and how healthcare reform will affect them, isn’t it great to know that some special corporate executives got a 51 percent raise in 2009?

Angela Braly, president and CEO of health insurer WellPoint, got a nice bonus that raised her salary to $13.1 million from $8.7 million the year before. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

Who’s Really Overcrowding The ER?

If you think the overcrowding in emergency rooms across the country is because of the uninsured, think again.

A new study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine reports that of patients who are frequent users (over 4 times a year) of emergency departments (ED), the uninsured represent only 15 percent of those frequent users.

Also, the frequent ED users were more likely than occasional users to have visited a primary care physician in the previous year.

They also found that most patients who frequently use the ED have health insurance and the majority of users (60 percent) were white. These findings contradict the widely held assumption that frequent users are minorities or illegal immigrants without insurance. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Healthcare Reform Bill

The healthcare reform bill is 1,017 pages long and contains a lot that will impact Americans. I’m one who believes we had to come into the 21st century and join the rest of the civilized nations in beginning to provide healthcare to all citizens. You be the judge.

Here are 10 things I bet you didn’t know are in the new healthcare reform bill:

  1. Menu labeling. Restaurants with over 20 employees must include calorie counts and other nutrition information on their menus.
  2. SWAG reporting. Doctors must report valuable goodies they receive from health vendors.
  3. Right to pump. New moms must be given space and time to pump breast milk (for employers with over 50 employees).
  4. Research. The bill includes research for postpartum depression.
  5. Tan tax. There’s a 10 percent tax on tanning booths.
  6. Adoption credit. Adoptive parents receive tax credits to encourage adoption.
  7. More research. The bill includes research for Indian health studies.
  8. Safety. The bill includes required background checks for long-term care workers.
  9. Right wing. The bill includes required abstinence education.
  10.  Transparency. Employers must show employer and employee contributions for healthcare on W-2 forms.

Fox News (“fair and balanced”) has said that it’s “what you don’t know that can hurt you.” Fox also said that “42 percent of doctors said they would quit or retire if healthcare reform became law.” It’s time to stop the fear mongering, lies and deception and understand just what this reform will and won’t do for the American public.

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

Why Medical Care Costs So Much: A Real-Life Example

The cost of medical care is high because the human body is complicated and doctors and patients hate ambiguity. The cost is high because a missed diagnosis can lead to death and a large lawsuit. The cost is high because we have many specialists who view the human body in their own tiny pieces and they want to feel 100 percent correct about their piece. Let me give you a real-life example. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

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