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Valerie Jarrett, White House Senior Advisor At BlogHer09

July 25th, 2009 by Emergiblog in News, Opinion
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I was honored to receive an unprecedented opportunity to hear a Senior Advisor to President Obama speak about his health care reform efforts at BlogHer 09.

Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, spoke to an intimate group of bloggers at a luncheon today.

And I was 15 minutes late.

How humiliating! This was definitely not the event where one should be “fashionably late”.

Ms. Jarrett was totally cool though, and said “Come on in and tell us who you are!” Apparently I had just missed intros; the discussion was just starting.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Now I’ve been pretty clear about not wanting a government run health care system, and I attended the luncheon knowing I did not have a clear grasp on the President’s proposal. (I have downloaded the Bill, have not had a chance to finish it.) I wanted to keep an open mind; I wanted to learn as opposed to opine.

The best way to learn is to keep your mouth shut and listen. That is exactly what I did.

It was not easy.

*****

Ms. Jarrett is warm, sincere and truly passionate about the President’s efforts at health care reform;  Ms. Jarrett has full faith in the ability of the President to positively reform our health care system.

Now, if I heard and understood correctly, what the President wants is a public plan as an option; a choice to obtain health care coverage through the government should you find yourself unemployed/without any health care coverage.  Ms. Jarrett was adamant that the goal is not a single-payer government run plan, but there was some group questioning of (1) why the idea of a government plan is perceived as scary and (2) whether or not it would be tantamount to socialism and indeed, what would be wrong with that anyway. One blogger noted that she knew many Canadians who were happy with their health care.

These questions were more rhetorical in nature. Honestly, I don’t think time would have permitted in-depth discussion.

*****

There was discussion on how bloggers can get out the message of health care reform and ideas on how the President can best communicate his ideas to the public.  It was noted that the President is holding press conferences for which he is asking full coverage because he wants the entire story told, not just sound bytes.  (Side note: I found this interesting because just recently ABC News encamped in the White House for an entire day – and the topic was health care reform.)

I actually did have a question enter my mind, as I was intrigued by the idea that the public plan was an option: I wanted to know if one could move in and out of the public plan as desired, or were you stuck in the public plan once it was chosen.

I didn’t get a chance to ask, as the discussion moved forward with two bloggers sharing stories of their personal experiences with the health care system.  Very personal, heart wrenching stories. Their frustration and anguish was palpable. Ms. Jarrett listened with empathy; she truly cared about what my fellow bloggers had/were enduring.

I found out later that both bloggers left with her personal business card with her office number for them to call her directly after the conference.  That was impressive.

*****

So, some final thoughts.

I like Valerie Jarrett.  It was amazing that she took time to come and speak to us, and it was informative. She speaks straight, she is sincere and she seems very passionate and compassionate regarding health care reform.  I’m a bit more informed about what the President is looking for.  This was the advantage shutting up and listening. I don’t necessarily agree but I’m starting to at least get a hold of the concept.

Gratuitous political commentary: I think a little too much time was spent decrying the last administration. It’s over; time to move on.

Now for my totally off-the-cuff observation. I could not help but notice this was the exact opposite of my experience in DC last week. This was a full-on Obamafest, last week seemed like an “anything BUT Obamafest”. This week the “opposition” was putting out misinformation, last week the “opposition” was trying to cram a bill through before Congress could read it.

Is there no middle ground? Does it have to be this contentious? Maybe it’s the way of politics and I’m just now realizing it.

Between the two events, I guess I have now been exposed to a “fair and balanced” view of health care reform by Washington insiders.

So….why does it still feel like I have vertigo?

*****

This post was written from my own notes and memory. It was actually live-blogged in real time and if you would like to read the entire transcript, it is written here: Valerie Jarrett/Health Care Reform Live Blog BlogHer 09.

Valerie Jarrett, White House Senior Advisor Talks to Bloggers at BlogHer09

*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*

ABC News Covers Better Health’s “Putting Patients First” Event At The National Press Club

July 20th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Opinion, Video
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I had the chance to discuss the event with local ABC anchor, Dave Lucas. We talked about the folly of rushing through a healthcare bill without reading it first… among other things.

Desperate Hospitals And Healthcare Reform

June 24th, 2009 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy
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I was in the “audience” of the phone conference today organized by Dr. Bob Goldberg, President, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI).  In addition to him, Dr. Val Jones (Founder and CEO of Better Health) and Dr Gary Puckrein (President, National Minority Quality Forum) were on the panel of speakers.  The focus was to be on the risks of government-run healthcare.

It seemed to me that many good points were made, but the main one was that the focus of the healthcare discussion needs to be refocused on the patient and the care given rather than simply on the high cost of care/insurance and any cost savings to be gained short-term.  As Dr Wes pointed out in his recent post (The $400 Billion Dollar Question), patients aren’t at the “table” of many of the discussions of healthcare reform that are taking place.

Should America understand precisely what is being cut when we see $400 billion suddenly disappear from the health care reform budget?

I would argue we must know.

After all, it’s we the patients who are not at the policy table, and you can bet that it’s the patients who will ultimately be paying the tab, be it directly through health care premiums, or indirectly by taxation or deficit spending.

There were two links given by the CMPI as sources for factual information on the healthcare discussion: publicplanfacts.org and biggovhealth.org.

I went to both, but in an effort to keep this post at a reasonable length will highlight only a few from the first link.  First this one —

• Public plan proponents are advocating a $1.25 per hour per employee tax to pay for the public plan. The Commonwealth Fund, “The Path to a High Performance U.S. Health System”, p. 29, February 2009.

I won’t comment on that one, but will this next one:

• Under the public plan, doctors and hospitals would see their reimbursements for providing medical care cut by as much as 30%. The Commonwealth Fund , “The Path to a High Performance U.S. Health System”, p.33, February 2009.

This decrease in reimbursement troubles me as I have watched the struggles many hospitals have experienced over the past several years with the current reimbursements.  I think this trend will only get worse.  Check out Barbara Duck’s series at Medical Quack on desperate hospitals.  Here’s an excerpt from the May 24, 2009 post:

In Chicago, Illinois

The Loyola University Health System in west suburban Maywood on Tuesday said it will eliminate more than 440 jobs, or about 8 percent of its workforce, amid the recession and an economic downturn causing an influx of patients who cannot pay their bills.

The cost of patients who cannot pay has increased 73 percent, to $31.3 million from $18.1 million, from a year earlier for the nine months ended March 31.

“We have been hit by a number of things,” Dr. Paul Whelton, chief executive of Loyola University Health System, said in an interview. “We are having more trouble with charity care, and the money we are getting [from patients] is more slow to come in. But we have a mission to provide care in our communities and we are going to stick to it.”

In all this talk on healthcare reform, it seems to me and others at the phone conference that the quality of patient care rather than simply cost containment needs to be put back at the front of the discussion.   Healthcare should provide care without being hampered by more and more rules and regulations in an effort to contain costs.  We don’t need more rules like the Medicare’s 75% rule.

Saving money by providing an inferior “product” isn’t what any of us want.  Is it?

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*