Comments on: Q & A on State Health Reform

By: Nancy Shinn

Nancy Shinn — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:32:03 +0000

I think the government needs to step in and help to lower costs of procedures. How much money would be saved if people who are obese could afford to have gastric bypass surgery, or lap band surgery. There are so many costs that are related to obesity, and many people who really want the surgery, but can’t afford it. Why does it have to be so expensive? Then there are those of us who can’t get medicaid, and can’t afford to buy insurance. It is very sad. I am struggling to afford my diabetic medicine. Many times I do without because I can’t afford it.

By: Chris Ewin

Chris Ewin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:02:37 +0000

Well-said…again.

By: Stanley Feld M.D.,MACE

Stanley Feld M.D.,MACE — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:59:25 +0000

Good going John.
No one has asked physicians what has to be done. The first guy that does wins.

By: WHF

WHF — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:50:18 +0000

I think Hillary plans to spend $110 billion, not $110 million. But not to worry. Give me one example where government has ever gotten involved and made things better than the bad old US private enterprise system has done. FedEx and UPS has reduced the USPS to a junk mail carrier. Medicare today costs ten times its original projection. The pay-as-you-go Ponzi scheme we call Social Security is funded by babies, not dollars, and moms and dads two to five decades ago didn’t contribute enough of them to support the coming age wave. It will get worse. The Medicare drug benefit was the greatest example of open air government theft of the incomes of future generations. And the Great Society’s “War on Poverty” — remember that one? We might as well have piled trillions of dollars and set them to the match. Today’s oil crisis and our lack of energy independence was caused by government. The problem with government programs is that they are proposed and legislated by people who have never held a real job in their lives, who have never created a business (which if successful is the embodiment of a solution to a consumer problem), who have never met a payroll, and who are deeply suspicious of markets and prices. Hillary and Barack come to mind.

By: James

James — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:18:07 +0000

John:

The New york Times article you cited went into some detail on how the effort was pretty hamstrung from the start. It appears it didn’t work as planned because, well, they didn’t do it right. The same article notes that similar efforts appeared to have worked within the private sector.

While admittedly too much health care policy work involves peering through rose-colored glasses, some of this stuff actually does work – if done correctly. And, on the other side, if we don’t do anything differently, we are stuck with the same fragmented, uncoordinated, error-prone, wasteful system we have today.

By: drsam

drsam — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:16:29 +0000

One of the most telling lines in that New York Times article was

…”“There have been numerous diabetics who didn’t even know what an endocrinologist was,” she said.”

So here’s a nurse who is supposed to be counseling patients via phone in order to keep costs down and there is the implication that she is appalled at the idea of diabetics being managed by…gasp…a non-endocrinologist.

Oh my!