Showing posts with label health care reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care reform. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
To Hell with Tarot Cards . . .
. . . .I turn to the all-seeing, all-knowing Zoltar for the truth about ObamaCare.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The "Public Option"
Keeping Orwell at bay means insisting that words and phrases be used with precision, lest their meanings be inverted or perverted, ala "1984."
That's why I have to say a quick something about the "public option" -- the term that's now widely used by politicos, pundits and serious journalists to describe a health care fix that would more accurately be called "the government option." Most Americans have seen through the obfuscation, thankfully, which is why the "public option" seems to be going down in flames, following an August recess in which congressional town hall meetings actually made news. But some of us might still be gulled into thinking that a "public option" would be under the control of the "public," meaning the people, instead of the government -- which today doesn't really represent the people or serve the people at all, but more often looks out for itself.
I realize that government these days is often referred to as the “public sector,” as juxtaposed against the “private sector,” but that’s something that also must change. Let’s call the “public sector” what it really is, which is the “government sector,” and start calling the private sector the “productive sector,” denoting the fact that everything the government sector spends, and frequently squanders, it takes from producers in the private sector.
So let's all stop using the term "public option" and begin using the more accurate "government option," just to end whatever confusion might still be out there, sown by the Orwellians who do the "messaging" in Washington.
That's why I have to say a quick something about the "public option" -- the term that's now widely used by politicos, pundits and serious journalists to describe a health care fix that would more accurately be called "the government option." Most Americans have seen through the obfuscation, thankfully, which is why the "public option" seems to be going down in flames, following an August recess in which congressional town hall meetings actually made news. But some of us might still be gulled into thinking that a "public option" would be under the control of the "public," meaning the people, instead of the government -- which today doesn't really represent the people or serve the people at all, but more often looks out for itself.
I realize that government these days is often referred to as the “public sector,” as juxtaposed against the “private sector,” but that’s something that also must change. Let’s call the “public sector” what it really is, which is the “government sector,” and start calling the private sector the “productive sector,” denoting the fact that everything the government sector spends, and frequently squanders, it takes from producers in the private sector.
So let's all stop using the term "public option" and begin using the more accurate "government option," just to end whatever confusion might still be out there, sown by the Orwellians who do the "messaging" in Washington.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Political Malpractice
Accidental death and murder-through-malpractice occur at every American hospital, much to the delight of the ambulance-chasers. It's just a sad fact of life -- or fact of death -- that every reasonable person understands, because to err is human and because hospitals, on balance, do far more good than harm.
But the sorts of accidents that go unnoticed or barely-noticed at most hospitals can threaten to shut down a doctor-owned hospital, as this story in today's Denver Post explains. This double standard isn't because such "specialty hospitals" deliver substandard care, as compared to non-doctor-owned counterparts; it's because they are upstarts, which bring competition into a system in which true competition is absent. It's because they threaten the profit margins of other hospitals. It's because they make easy scapegoats for politicians looking for someone "greedy" to blame for a system that politicians and regulators screwed-up. And it's because some interest groups hope to use the health care overhaul being contemplated by Congress to get rid of these rival institutions.
The Post, to its credit, delves into the interest group politics lurking behind the attack on doctor-owned hospitals:
"The debate over doctor-owned hospitals, ongoing since they began to flourish a decade ago, has pitted politician against politician — and doctors and their trade groups, including the American Medical Association, against hospitals and their trade groups — in a battle of wills and dueling studies on the hospitals' impact.
A proposed provision in the health care reform package Congress is debating could effectively end the debate — and kill future doctor-owned hospitals.
The provision would prevent doctor-owned hospitals from collecting Medicare reimbursements, which can be a hospital's lifeblood" . . .
". . . .No sooner did these hospitals start popping up than traditional hospitals started crying foul. Those cries struck consistent themes: The specialized hospitals cherry-pick healthy, insured patients, leaving the really sick, the poor, the uninsured to pile up in generalized hospitals. The advent of doctor-owned hospitals, generalized hospitals say, threatens their very survival."
And their profits, of course. "The American Hospital Association reported that hospitals made a record $43 billion profit in 2007, the largest single-year profit jump in 15 years," reports The Post. And non-specialty hospitals aren't interested in cutting specialty hospitals in on that action.
Conflicts of interest and self-referrals can be a potential problem in doctor-owned hospitals. But this exists with conventional hospitals, too. I've only had a few major surgeries, fortunately, but I've never enjoyed my choice of hospital for having the procedures done. Once I picked my surgeon, my choice of hospital was also decided for me. I didn't ask "why?" I didn't investigate potential conflicts of interest. I didn't wring my hands over whether the surgeon's fee was reasonable or obscene (assuming a layperson has the knowledge to make such a determination).
The system isn't set up for comparison-shopping -- which is part of what's wrong with it. I just showed up at the appointed date and went under the knife, turning my fate over to a system I don't understand and can't control.
With doctor-owned hospitals, "we have individuals who will personally gain from having the control of what happens, of who goes in, who's admitted, what tests are done," a spokesman for the Colorado Hospital Association told the Post. But isn't that an apt description of how most non-doctor-owned hospitals operate?
The problem isn't specialty hospitals; the problem is an impossibly convoluted and covert system in which market forces don't work, and which conspires against a patient's ability to act as a true consumer. The problem isn't malpractice at certain doctor-owned hospitals; but malpractice in the broader, systemic sense, driven not so much by the "greed" of doctors but my the incessant meddling of politicians and government regulators. And now, based on a misdiagnosis of the ailment, Congress wants to do major surgery on a system that Congress made ill.
But the sorts of accidents that go unnoticed or barely-noticed at most hospitals can threaten to shut down a doctor-owned hospital, as this story in today's Denver Post explains. This double standard isn't because such "specialty hospitals" deliver substandard care, as compared to non-doctor-owned counterparts; it's because they are upstarts, which bring competition into a system in which true competition is absent. It's because they threaten the profit margins of other hospitals. It's because they make easy scapegoats for politicians looking for someone "greedy" to blame for a system that politicians and regulators screwed-up. And it's because some interest groups hope to use the health care overhaul being contemplated by Congress to get rid of these rival institutions.
The Post, to its credit, delves into the interest group politics lurking behind the attack on doctor-owned hospitals:
"The debate over doctor-owned hospitals, ongoing since they began to flourish a decade ago, has pitted politician against politician — and doctors and their trade groups, including the American Medical Association, against hospitals and their trade groups — in a battle of wills and dueling studies on the hospitals' impact.
A proposed provision in the health care reform package Congress is debating could effectively end the debate — and kill future doctor-owned hospitals.
The provision would prevent doctor-owned hospitals from collecting Medicare reimbursements, which can be a hospital's lifeblood" . . .
". . . .No sooner did these hospitals start popping up than traditional hospitals started crying foul. Those cries struck consistent themes: The specialized hospitals cherry-pick healthy, insured patients, leaving the really sick, the poor, the uninsured to pile up in generalized hospitals. The advent of doctor-owned hospitals, generalized hospitals say, threatens their very survival."
And their profits, of course. "The American Hospital Association reported that hospitals made a record $43 billion profit in 2007, the largest single-year profit jump in 15 years," reports The Post. And non-specialty hospitals aren't interested in cutting specialty hospitals in on that action.
Conflicts of interest and self-referrals can be a potential problem in doctor-owned hospitals. But this exists with conventional hospitals, too. I've only had a few major surgeries, fortunately, but I've never enjoyed my choice of hospital for having the procedures done. Once I picked my surgeon, my choice of hospital was also decided for me. I didn't ask "why?" I didn't investigate potential conflicts of interest. I didn't wring my hands over whether the surgeon's fee was reasonable or obscene (assuming a layperson has the knowledge to make such a determination).
The system isn't set up for comparison-shopping -- which is part of what's wrong with it. I just showed up at the appointed date and went under the knife, turning my fate over to a system I don't understand and can't control.
With doctor-owned hospitals, "we have individuals who will personally gain from having the control of what happens, of who goes in, who's admitted, what tests are done," a spokesman for the Colorado Hospital Association told the Post. But isn't that an apt description of how most non-doctor-owned hospitals operate?
The problem isn't specialty hospitals; the problem is an impossibly convoluted and covert system in which market forces don't work, and which conspires against a patient's ability to act as a true consumer. The problem isn't malpractice at certain doctor-owned hospitals; but malpractice in the broader, systemic sense, driven not so much by the "greed" of doctors but my the incessant meddling of politicians and government regulators. And now, based on a misdiagnosis of the ailment, Congress wants to do major surgery on a system that Congress made ill.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Talk About a "Crash Course"
The Washington Post reports that House Democrats went back to school Monday afternoon, sitting still, without talking or interrupting, while congressional staff led a tutorial on what's in the 1,000-page overhaul of the American health care system that's been floating around the chamber for weeks.
This way, when they're home for August recess, members can speak coherently about the bill -- almost as if they understand it.
Explains the Post:
"The rough draft of the bill ("America's Health Choices Act") runs more than 1,000 pages, with amendments yet to come. Last week the Democrats decided that they needed to know more about the legislation before they go back to their constituents for the August recess. Hence the teach-in, an unusual basement seminar that lasted five hours with one break for procedural votes on the House floor."
But shouldn't members of the majority party have undergone this tutorial before, rather than after, the bill was written and introduced? And what does this say about the cluelessness (and sheer recklessness) of the people ostensibly in charge; and about the power wielded by unelected staff (and the lobbyists they're chummy with), who draw-up legislation first and educate their bosses about the details later, weeks after the bill is introduced?
More from the Post:
"Some members had a printout of the entire bill. Others used a 34-page cheat sheet . . . . To make matters somewhat easier for members, the packet of information handed out at the door included a glossary of health-care terms, including:
Actuarial
Equivalent
Adverse Selection
Capitation Comparative
Effectiveness
Cost Shifting
Duel Eligibles"
What a scary story. What an alarming situation. The county is being run by a gang of morons -- and their nameless assistants. Congress is about to attempt an overhaul of the American health care system -- based on a "cheat sheet."
Time to head for the lifeboats.
This way, when they're home for August recess, members can speak coherently about the bill -- almost as if they understand it.
Explains the Post:
"The rough draft of the bill ("America's Health Choices Act") runs more than 1,000 pages, with amendments yet to come. Last week the Democrats decided that they needed to know more about the legislation before they go back to their constituents for the August recess. Hence the teach-in, an unusual basement seminar that lasted five hours with one break for procedural votes on the House floor."
But shouldn't members of the majority party have undergone this tutorial before, rather than after, the bill was written and introduced? And what does this say about the cluelessness (and sheer recklessness) of the people ostensibly in charge; and about the power wielded by unelected staff (and the lobbyists they're chummy with), who draw-up legislation first and educate their bosses about the details later, weeks after the bill is introduced?
More from the Post:
"Some members had a printout of the entire bill. Others used a 34-page cheat sheet . . . . To make matters somewhat easier for members, the packet of information handed out at the door included a glossary of health-care terms, including:
Actuarial
Equivalent
Adverse Selection
Capitation Comparative
Effectiveness
Cost Shifting
Duel Eligibles"
What a scary story. What an alarming situation. The county is being run by a gang of morons -- and their nameless assistants. Congress is about to attempt an overhaul of the American health care system -- based on a "cheat sheet."
Time to head for the lifeboats.
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