March 22nd, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Cardiology, Health Insurance, Healthcare Systems, Heart, uninsured
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Being at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, I had a unique opportunity to meet with an interventional cardiologist from “across the pond” in England: Sarah Clarke, MD.
Sarah is a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge UK. Her undergraduate years were spent at the University of Cambridge, UK and postgraduate training was undertaken in the region. She attained an MD from the Univeristy of Cambridge. She was awarded a Fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and returned to take up her Consultant post in the UK in 2002. In 2006 Dr Clarke was appointed the Clinical Director of Cardiac Services at Papworth. Papworth Hospital is a 240ish-bed hospital that performs about 2,000 interventional cardiology procedures per year.
We thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast two heart patients — one with insurance and one without insurance — from our two health care systems, to illustrate how these patients obtain health coverage, might be managed, and how things look from the patient’s perspective. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
March 22nd, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, Senate Healthcare Bill
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Since the 2000 Presidential election, and most especially since the world-changing events of October 17, 2004, I’ve known this: Don’t assume anything is over until it’s over. Still, I’m going to bed so I’m going to give you my six quick reactions to the healthcare reform plan, based on the assumption it’s about to get voted in:
UPDATE: I stayed up and it passed.
1. It’s Historic. It is, but mostly because people keep saying that it is. I mean the President of the United States has gambled most of what he’s got on this, so it’s one for the history books in that sense. Still, a health care program that was truly historic would be something like taking all of the uninsured and just enrolling them immediately in Medicare. This plan doesn’t come anywhere close to doing that. Much of what is meant to deal with the serious problem of the uninsured doesn’t start for years, and is going to be handled through a complicated mechanism that may not even work. I suspect the history-making part of this will have to do more with the political fortunes of the Democrats and President than American health care. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
March 22nd, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Government-run Healthcare, Health Insurance, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare reform, Medicare
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My alarm clock is set to “radio” and my radio is set to the local NPR station. Now, I’m not one of those people who leaps out of bed when the alarm goes off. Instead, I lie in bed slowly waking up to about 15 or 20 minutes of the morning news.
This morning however, the news just made me want to pull the covers over my head and never get out of bed. That’s because the focus was healthcare reform, and the amount of misinformation — and, yes, I have to say it: stupidity — out there about what the current proposals will or won’t do is making me literally sick to my stomach. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine and Health Care*
March 21st, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Global, Population Control, Population Growth
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Last summer, my wife Greta and I spent a glorious week with old friends in a lovely home on the coast of Maine, immersed in wilderness and beautiful isolation. Isn’t it just wonderful?
Yet a home like this is completely out of reach for the vast majority of the world’s population, isn’t it? Even if everyone could afford such a place, there simply isn’t enough land on the planet to house everyone in such luxury, right? Maybe not. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
March 21st, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Health Commentary, Online Health Conversation, Social Health
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Meetings centered on social health are becoming popular. Everyone wants a piece of the pie as the demand for face-to-face dialogue grows. But this raises an interesting question: Who owns the social health conversation? In other words, who decides where, when and what to talk about? And who speaks? Who, after all, is in charge?
Online no one owns anything. Everyone has the stage. Your platform and reach are determined by your credibility. But the relationships and power positions that evolve in the virtual world may not extrapolate to the real world. There are different forces in play. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
