The Publisher (Jeb Bladine) of my local newspaper (The News-Register of McMinnville, Oregon) writes a weekly column called Whatchamacolumn. This week he decried the lack of honest debate about health care reform and he recommended that everyone should watch a video he had recently seen. It takes 30 minutes but has more logical, honest discussion of the issue than has come from Congress at any time since the debate began.
To become better informed about the health care debate, this video is the best half hour you will spend.
You can see the Dr. Ben Carson interview at http://www.wlos.com/template/healthcare_reform/videos/vid_8.shtml
(This is from ABC-TV channel 13 in North Carolina)
Please let me know what you think after viewing it. Better still – send it on to your Senators and Member of Congress with your comments.
Thanks.
2 comments
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November 11, 2009 at 5:18 pm
pmv
Nice video. It is rare to find someone as reasonable as Dr. Carson on this issue. I have a couple comments:
First, I think the Electronic Records idea is not as simple as it seems (I assume he means electronic medical records, as all billing is already largely electronic). As I design the software to keep track of medical records and billing, I know that it is very complicated, and entering this data into an online system takes MORE time, not less, than relying on faxes/paper.
The way that healthplans hope to save money by having everything online is to be able to do the following (and they should be able to save a LOT):
1) Identify and track “frequent fliers” (who visit the hospital most frequently) and assign them a nurse to make sure they are as healthy as possible.
2) Figure out when hospitals and doctors are overbiling them (by providing unnecessary care/hospitalization), based upon industry standards.
3) Avoid fines by various regulatory bodies (management can see if a certain division is providing care too slowly/improperly and can fix the situation). These fines can be in the millions, and are of course passed on to us.
4) Manage the most expensive cases/diseases by assigning nurses to work through specific care plans for each expensive patient.
Second, I agree we need to cap medical malpractice awards. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is the panacea many hope for (estimates put these awards at .5% – 1.5% of healthcare costs).
Third, certainly there are issues with every country’s healthcare, but railing on Canada doesn’t make that much sense. According to an article by Bob Barr, some 17,500 Canadians came to the US for healthcare in a 7 month period (http://blogs.ajc.com/bob-barr-blog/2009/08/28/17500-canadians-cant-be-wrong/?cxntfid=blogs_bob_barr_blog), and extrapolated from a phone survey of 18000 Canadians (http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/21/3/19), about 36,300 people come per year. These numbers are pretty consistent – about 0.11% of Canadians have inadequate access to healthcare. In the US, even if we say only 20,000,000 people can’t get healthcare, that is 6.6%.
November 11, 2009 at 10:46 pm
ttoes
PMV,
Glad you took the time and enjoyed the video. I do really wish every member of Congress would see it. I am just naive enough to think it may change a mind or two about the horrible bill they just passed.
I agree re medical billing. I think the savings are exaggerated but that the secret in making the most of it is in programming in ease of use and setting a protocol for use that makes sense, not just one that gets the job done.
I disagree on your points on capping malpractice awards. I would rather see a method that did not have caps (read price controls). I would prefer, as stated in my post on a draft bill (http://ttoes.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/draft-1-the-healthcare-real-reform-act-of-2009/ ), a ban on pain and suffering awards and no limit on provable damages. You can’t bring back a life or an arm, etc. You can provide replacement for lost income, etc. I believe that pain and suffering awards are where the excesses are worst.
I also disagree with the .5% to 1.5% estimates on awards. Though those figures may approximate the dollars in awards, I have seen papers that discussed the value of the out-of-court settlements that are two to three times that amount. And, that is just the tip of the iceberg. The real cost is all the excess procedures and the cost of the cautionary medicine that has nothing to do with cure or prevention and everything to do with avoiding liability. I have seen estimates that alteration to medical practice to avoid liability is over 10% of the cost of medicine today. I don’t recall where I saw that but treat it as questionable but on the right track.
Hadn’t seen the Barr article and don’t doubt it may be right. I do, however, not believe we have 20,000,000 or even one million who do not have health care. Anyone who presents themselves to an emergency room gets healthcare. The question is, “why are we willing to spend the money to treat someone in an Emergency room at 5 times the cost of a clinic?”
thanks for the comment.
Tom