Monthly Archive for December, 2009

Page 3 of 5

Expanding Medicare – Good or Bad Idea?

December 12, 2009
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The Senate Dems are talking about expanding Medicare.  Well, expanding Medicare to people over 55.  Um, expanding Medicare to some people over 55.  Er, expanding Medicare to some people over 55 who can afford to pay the price.

Is this a good idea, or part of a good idea? What and Why?

What is it?

What is it?

The details are sketchy at this point.   The so-called expansion of Medicare is tied to discussions about killing the public option because that insurance company lackey, Senator Joe Lieberman (I, CN), could otherwise kill health care reform demanded by the majority of Americans.

And those right wing nut cases think we lefties are jamming health care reform down their throats?

Expanding Medicare has some appeal, but the Senate solution, like so many Congressional fixes, manages to muck it up. Continue reading ‘Expanding Medicare – Good or Bad Idea?’

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Senate Dems may change health care compromise

December 11, 2009
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By ERICA WERNER

The Associated Press
December 11, 2009

washingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are considering changing a proposed expansion of Medicare to address complaints from doctors and hospitals and defray costs for consumers, officials said Thursday, two days after party leaders hailed it as part of a breakthrough for health care.

Under the plan, uninsured individuals ages 55 to 64 could purchase coverage under Medicare. The expansion is part of a compromise for dropping a full-blown national government-run insurance plan from the legislation that Democrats and the White House hope to push through the Senate by Christmas.

Senate Dems may change health care compromise – washingtonpost.com

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Progress and health care

December 10, 2009
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This morning driving to work I listened to a story on NPR Morning Edition.  It described the effort to build Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine – a mechanical predecessor to today’s computer.  Babbage died before he could ever complete his machine but modern engineers have recreated it.

The analogy with health care struck me.  Congress is building a Babbage machine in an era of super computers.

And we dare to call it progress?

Charles Babbage Difference Engine

Charles Babbage Difference Engine

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Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare-for-all (#2 of 6)

December 9, 2009
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Andrew Coates MD on Monday, Dec 7, 2009 PNHP’s Official Blog

Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare-for-all (#2 of 6)

Citizen juries demonstrate massive support for single-payer
By Kip Sullivan, JD

“They contradicted both beltway and public opinion polls. The whole damn world seems to think the Clinton plan is the way to go. Yet they like the single-payer system, which isn’t even getting considered in Washington.”

That was how the president of the Jefferson Center characterized the outcome of a five-day “citizen jury” experiment in which 24 “jurors” listened to and questioned 30 experts on health care reform. (Patrick Howe, “‘Citizens jury’ supports Wellstone’s health care proposal over Clinton plan,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 15, 1993, 10A.) Of those 30 experts, only one, Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), spoke in favor of single-payer. (Gail Shearer of Consumers Union, which had endorsed single-payer by 1993, was one of the 30 experts to speak to the jury, but it is not clear from the Jefferson Center record that she spoke in favor of single-payer.)

Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare-for-all (#2 of 6) – PNHP’s Official Blog

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Open Mike – Departments – Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine

December 8, 2009
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Reform 2.0

by Michael J. Klag

I have to find a new doctor.

Last month, my primary care physician wrote me a letter. He said he was leaving private practice. He’s an outstanding physician—a doctor’s doctor whom I’ve known since he was a medical student. His reason for closing up shop? The sheer frustration of getting paid by private insurance companies.

When a physician of his stature and skills departs private practice for a reason like that, it is an indictment of our health care system—that is, if we had a health care system. We all know the U.S. has great physicians and the world’s best medical technology. But the best health care system? Not in the least. Our crazy patchwork quilt is an accident of history and one that we need to fix. It fails us in so many ways, from its gross inefficiencies to the fact that it has left 47 million Americans without health insurance.

Open Mike – Departments – Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine

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