One Injury, 10 Countries: A Journey in Health Care

Arthritis Foundation Forum

Home

Welcome Guest ( Login | Register )

One Injury, 10 Countries: A Journey in Health...

Rate Topic

Display Mode

Topic Options

Author

Message

Nikki Lynn

Posted Friday, September 18, 2009 9:18 AM

Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 11:49 AM
Posts: 1,890, Visits: 1,853

Interesting article......

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/health/15book.html?_r=1&ref=health

Lynn

Rituxan....In Remission after 8 long years

“Over the last few centuries, a process developed for separating fact from fiction, and it is called science…’the crash testing of ideas.’”

The Microbial Metagenome, Debunking the Marshall protocol

http://whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html

Post #4234608

Top

Joy125

Posted Friday, September 18, 2009 7:21 PM

Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 10:08 PM
Posts: 2,584, Visits: 4,623

I first learned about T. R. Reid, when he did a documentary for PBS titled, "Sick Around the World." He visited and investigated the health care systems of the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan -- countries that provided health care to all their citizens -- and spend less than the U.S doing so. It was quite the eye-opener. Chapters of the film can be viewed online at the site below.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

Recently his book, "The Healing of America," was released, in which he discusses the problems with our health care system and how to fix it.

From a New York Time's review:

" . . . we exist in a sea of not-so-unique alternatives. Like the citizens of Germany and Japan, workers in the United States share insurance premiums with an employer. Like Canadians, our older, destitute and disabled citizens see private providers with the government paying. Like the British, military veterans and Native Americans receive care in government facilities with the government paying the tab. And like the poor around the world, our uninsured pay cash, finagle charity care, or stay home.

Our archipelago of plans means that those safe on a good island with good insurance can be delighted with the system, even as millions of invisible fellow citizens tread water or drown offshore. It means that those on a mediocre island are stuck there. It also means that not one single piece of the infrastructure — like record keeping, drug pricing and administrative costs — can be streamlined across islands in any meaningful way. Hence the expense, the inequity and the tragedy.

. . . Among health policy narratives, this book’s clarity, comprehensiveness and readability are exceptional, and its bottom line is a little different from most. Instead of rationalization and hand-wringing, Mr. Reid offers an array of possible solutions for our crisis.

. . . Mr. Reid’s underlying message of hope does not preclude an intensely satisfying quotient of moral outrage at the worst casualties of our system as it stands.

One is the uninsured working person, too rich for Medicaid, too poor for a standard insurance policy, at first too proud to acknowledge disability, and then too sick for the process that a formal declaration of disability requires. These are the people who die of treatable illness in our country.

And then there is the insured working person who discovers, with surprise, that health insurance is a for-profit industry, that the industry term for payment is “medical loss” and that the process of extracting payment for a dire health condition can turn into a bizarre game of “catch me if you can.”

A person’s last days can be spent in any number of ways. But on the phone pleading with an insurer, that’s only in America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/health/15book.html

__________________________________________________

Lift up your hand, oh God. Do not forget the helpless. Psalm 10:12

http://www.physiciansforpeace.org/

Post #4234859

Top

Joy125

Posted Saturday, September 19, 2009 7:06 PM

Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 10:08 PM
Posts: 2,584, Visits: 4,623

The author, of "The Healing of America," T. R. Reid, answered questions in this NYT article, some excerpts:

Q.

Americans seem to think that all advanced countries with universal coverage have single-payer systems. Actually, that’s not true.

A.

A lot of what Americans think they know about health care overseas is not accurate. Japan has 3,000 payers. Germany has 220 payers. Switzerland has 70. But in many ways, the systems in these countries act like single payers, with one set of rules, one set of forms.

In Japan, there is one price for each procedure for the entire country. They publish a huge book thicker than the Tokyo phone book that lists 30,000 medical procedures and sets the price for each. There’s one set price for a cut requiring six stitches on the back of the hand and another for a cut requiring six stitches on the thigh.

Q.

Many Americans are saying that universal coverage is too expensive. But you say it’s essential for controlling medical costs. Why?

A.

If everybody’s in the system, you have the political will to make tough decisions about cost control. If you say, “We will cover the $20,000 drug for breast cancer, but not the $40,000 drug,” that means some women may die sooner than they might have. But if the system covers everybody, you know the money saved is going to be used to help a sick child or a mother with a difficult pregnancy. That makes it easier for society to accept those tough decisions.

In the U.S., when Aetna or WellPoint declines to pay for a drug or a procedure, the money saved goes to enhance the insurer’s profit, not to pay for another person’s treatment. So people are less willing to tolerate cost controls. All over the world, health ministers told me that the first step is universal coverage — and that generates the political will to impose controls.

Q.

Critics argue that if we institute cost controls, it will stifle innovation in both drug discovery and the development of new technologies.

A.

That’s completely false. Overseas, cost controls drive innovation. In Denver, I had an M.R.I. that cost $1,434 dollars. The exact same procedure in Japan today costs about $105. That’s because the government kept reducing the price it would pay for M.R.I.’s. Japanese researchers had to devise ways to get the same scan for less money, and they did, developing much cheaper machines.

As for drugs, it’s also false. Lots of drugs that make TV news in America come originally from labs in the U.K., Switzerland or Japan.

TO READ COMPLETE ARTICLE SEE:

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/health-care-abroad-questions-for-tr-reid/

__________________________________________________

Lift up your hand, oh God. Do not forget the helpless. Psalm 10:12

http://www.physiciansforpeace.org/

Post #4235130

Top

« Prev Topic | Next Topic »

All times are GMT -5:00, Time now is 10:37pm

Execution: 1.045. 41 queries. Compression Disabled.