March 24th, 2010 by DrRich in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Primary Care Wednesdays
Tags: Doctor Shortage, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, PCP, Primary Care Physician, Senate Healthcare Bill
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DrRich is obviously far more intelligent than those wayward Democrat Congresspersons, whose last-minute “yes” votes Speaker Pelosi is seducing with her winning smile, and with her double-super-hope-to-die promise that the Senate will surely agree with the reconciliation package the House has finally assembled.
Unlike Pelosi’s reluctant Blue Dogs, DrRich understands that once the House has deemed the Senate bill to have been passed, and the President signs it into law, and the confetti drops and the champagne pops and the press goes into raptures and the work begins to revise Mt.Rushmore, the odds immediately become vanishingly small that the President, the Senate, or even the 200 House Democrats who really like the new law, will actually then embark on a new, prolonged, contentious spectacle of a reconciliation fight in the Senate.
Rather, once healthcare reform becomes law, political expediency dictates that we in the teeming masses never hear another word about healthcare until after the November elections. We will be distracted by more pressing matters, from which there will be many to choose — gasoline prices, Iranian nuclear weapons, economic collapses in the PIIGs, etc.
Now, DrRich does not have the stamina to study the new law all at once as a whole. He must bite off little pieces. And the first thing he sought in embarking on his study of our new healthcare system was evidence of how the new law would rescue the Primary Care Physician (PCP). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Covert Rationing Blog*
March 24th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: CAM, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, Evidence Based Medicine, General Medicine, Research, Science Based Medicine, Traditional Medicine
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Here’s some advice I have given teenage boys who are going toe-to-toe with their mothers about a health issue:
Don’t go toe-to-toe with your mother; it’s a no-win situation. Either you are right, and you are looked at as a “smarty-pants” or you are wrong, and have given her a huge “I told you so.” If, on the other hand, you keep quiet and listen to what she’s saying, it’s a win-win: either she’s right and you learn something, or she’s wrong, and you have been vindicated.
Fathers often pipe in that this applies to wives as well. Mom’s don’t seem to disagree (for some mysterious reason).
While this may be sound relational advice, it also needs to be heeded by the medical community in its relationship to “complimentary and alternative medicine” or CAM. I am not saying we shouldn’t be angry and frustrated with the CAM purveyors who are harming and even killing people (such as the anti-vaccine movement). I am not saying that we should embrace CAM and put it at anywhere near equal footing with our profession. What I am saying is that in our enthusiasm to win the argument, we can undermine our own credibility. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
March 23rd, 2010 by Richard Cooper, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Hospitals, Legislation, Manager's Amendment to Reconcilliation, Mean Household Income, Medicare spending, Poverty
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The final House “Manager’s Amendment to Reconcilliation“ provides $400M for hospitals located in counties in the lowest quartile of Medicare spending, adjusted for age, sex and race — but not income. Coupled with annual cuts of $10B in DSH and $1.5B for re-admissions, this is bad news for the poor and the hospitals that care for them. Mayo Clinic wins!
Note that adjustments cannot be based on counties. Urban counties are too big and economically varied. When the extremes of wealth and poverty are averaged, mean household income is 128% of average in Washington DC, 113% in LA, and 108% in Chicago (Cook County), all with dense and costly poverty ghettos. Without any poverty, mean household income in Olmsted County (home to Mayo Clinic) is the same as in LA. Very few truly poor counties will qualify for such payments. This is another example of the truism that “Poverty is the Problem; Wealth is the Solution.”
*This blog post was originally published at PHYSICIANS and HEALTH CARE REFORM Commentaries and Controversies*
March 23rd, 2010 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Diabetes, Health Insurance, Healthcare Coverage, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, Pre-existing Condition
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The healthcare reform bill “doesn’t fix everything that’s wrong with our health care system, but it moves us decisively forward,” said the President. Insurance companies will be under government regulations, coverage can’t be denied based on pre-existing conditions, and the bill is signed.
Wait…coverage can’t be denied based on pre-existing conditions?
According to this New York Times editorial, “The biggest difference for Americans who have employer-based insurance is the security of knowing that, starting in 2014, if they lose their job and have to buy their own policy, they cannot be denied coverage or charged high rates because of pre-existing conditions. Before then, the chronically ill could gain temporary coverage from enhanced high-risk pools and chronically ill children are guaranteed coverage.”
I’ve always wanted to take that leap and run my own business. I enjoy working in new media and healthcare, I like working hard, but what kept me from making a bold move was pure and unadulterated fear. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
March 22nd, 2010 by Stanley Feld, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Congressman Paul Ryan, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare reform, Obamacare, Senate Healthcare Bill, Traditional Media
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By Stanley Feld MD, FACP, MACE
The traditional media is not discussing the economic consequences of President Obama’s healthcare reform program.
In these final days, traditional media is describing the horse race to the finish line for a deemed vote (“Slaughter rule”) vs. a partisan up and down vote on the Senate bill. The horse race is a distraction to avoid discussing the unintended consequences of the bill.
Congressman Paul Ryan is the Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee and senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee. His focus has been to bring fiscal discipline to federal spending. The House Ways and Means committee’s jurisdiction is tax policy, social security and healthcare. He has been addressing America’s long-term fiscal crisis and the dangers of explosive entitlement spending. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*
