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Killiana1a on 30 October 2010
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Kasz216 said:
Killiana1a said:
Mr Khan said:
Killiana1a said:

I can sympathize with the OP in having concerns with individual political entities, but I think people are making the Tea Party movement more than it is.

Funny in universities such blatantly racist individuals such as Malcolm X and Mumia Abu Jamal are revered as almost sub-culture idols, but any political movement containing a majority of Whites is made out to be racist, reactionary and xenophobic. Talk about White Guilt and double standards....

That being said, the Tea Party movement is this decade's equivalence in power to the hippies of the 1960s, the Christian Right in 1980s, and the Ross Perot voters in the 1990s.

Or as Newton's Law of Motion states, "To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction."

Conservative Democrats such as myself expected this type of reaction (Tea Party movement) to Democrats controlling all three branches of the US Government from 2008-2010.

Yes, the US House of Representatives will go Republican in less than a week and I surmise it will be close to a 50 seat gain for Republicans. I will be relieved by this because now our politicians will have to engage in politics and compromise reflecting a larger view of the US to get policies passed rather than having Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts stomp on the minority (Republicans) in Congress and ram their stuff reflecting San Francisco values through with no Republican input.

They tried getting Republican input. Why do you think we have this watered-down wishy-washy health care bill, instead of something with some teeth to it?

Republicans would counter, why did Obama sell out to Big Pharma and not allow provisions in the healthcare bill to allow individual US citizens to buy generics or the same drug from Canada or another country?

This "watered-down wishy washy health care bill" is due more to the hundreds of millions the healthcare industry spent on lobbying to protect their financial bottom lines in the bill. This doesn't excuse Republicans who from the day Obama was elected never ever wanted to play politics and compromise, instead they decided from Obama's first day in office to be the Party of No. Well, this will come back to haunt them because Obama has the veto pen.  

Everyone sold out on this bill. My take is comprehensive healthcare reform should have never been taken up until we got the unemployment down to 8% or lower. Instead, Congress spent close to a year wrangling over a significant social policy, while ignoring the more important economic realities.

It doesn't help that insurance companies aren't really why Healthcare is expensive.

The truth is, nobody wants to tackle the true rising cost of healthcare... because nobody knows how.

All the main costs of healthcare are Education (which could be handled) and Pharmecuticals New equipment.

 

The US comes up with new medical technology at breakneck speeds... because the US accounts for 84% of the worlds medical research funding.

When you consider the EU is a greater economy GDP wise then the US....  this says something.

A decent amount of funding is redundant... but the vast majority of it isn't.

We really gotta figure out how to control those costs without taking out the profit motivation for developing new products, equipments and treatments.

 

As it stands now, our choice is between Unequal care, or equal care... but 10 years from now everyones care is worse then the care even the poorest people would of got under the unequal system.

I agree education, pharmaceuticals and equipment are all components in why healthcare is so expensive. For me, it boils down to the system.

First, the delivery of healthcare needs to be improved. Getting my Master's in Health Administration, we looked at physicians and organizations who were practicing innovative ways to deliver care. For example, GreenField Health in Portland, OR is a boutique clinic where you pay a $250-750 annual fee. What you get is the ability to email a physician at any time to cut down on unnecessary, diagnostic healthcare visits. Furthermore, all the medical records are in electronic format, so you don't have to spend 15 to 30 minutes before your first visit filling out paperwork. Here is the site:

http://securemail.greenfieldhealth.com/portal/

Second, the US healthcare system is fundamentally a cottage industry where you have the primary care physician (PCP) as an individual businessman, specialists as individual businessmen, hospice as a separate entity, hospitals separate, medical equipment and supplies separate and on.This type of organization is reminescent of the 16th century where you had miners mining the ore, refineries refining the ore, and blacksmiths creating useable items all as distinct entities.

Kaiser Permanente is and should be the model for US healthcare where you have the insurance company, Kaiser, merged with the doctors, Permanente, under the same roof. For the healthcare consumer, Kaiser Permanente cuts down on extra trips to specialists you have never been to, a PCP who is keen on cutting down on defensive medicine such as CT scans because they have a financial stake in keeping costs low, and the reassurance a highly qualified doctor is on call even if he/she is not your PCP.

Studying Healthcare Administration in Portland, OR, there is a transition under way in the healthcare system. With the requirements of all MDs having to transition to electronic medical records due to HIPAA enforcement, more and more physicians are choosing to work directly with hospitals as employees because their practice cannot afford to implement an electronic medical records system. Furthermore, being on-call every week as a standalone MD is very stressful and selling your practice and working for a hospital cuts down on on-call time.

Finally, hospitals are where the reform is at, they are the center of the change. Legacy and Providence, the two major health systems in the Portland Metro Area are no longer just standalone hospitals. They have become integrated delivery systems (IDS). Meaning, they provide hospital care along with hospice, employed PCPs, employed specialists, medical supplies and equipment, home healthcare, long-term care, and on.

In essence, IDS such as Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, and Providence Health have taken all the cottages and put them under the same roof like private business started doing in the 1800s with the forefather of modern day corporations in joint stock companies. This is the future of healthcare.