Healthcare
hi, rich (Dr. Richard Kerbavaz). i don't think i know the right questions to ask. so...
it seems it will be important that everybody have the same coverage, the same access. this way the rich/powerful will make sure that the coverage will be top-notch...because they will be in the same system as the rest of us.
seems like the reasons why most doctors don't take medi-cal are low pay and insane pre-authorization red tape....which are also the complaints against the insurance/hmo. how about no pre-authorization, but a possibility of a [random?] review afterward? again if everyone is in the system, doctors could get paid for how many patients under their care, rather than for visits or operations...providing the patients are well-served.
all hospitals should be not-for-profit. are we facing shortage of doctors, nurses, and hospitals now? would our equal access health care require more or less of these? the whole health care system....including drugs, medical equipment, etc...should be not-for-profit.
our health care should stress preventative medicine, public health, nutrition, and will include "alternative" medicine, herbs, and....well...human caring/care-givers. there will a place for high tech medicine. but it probably won't be the main thing...once we have removed huge profits from the system.
seems like at the heart of the system should be the relationship between the patient and her doctor whom she chooses.
all of this e-mail is raw jamming....the first stage of changing the system!
btw, why is it illegal for doctors to form unions?
looking forward to exploring these things with you on the show!
In Freedom,
Frank Moore
Richard Kerbavaz wrote:
Frank,
I'm clearly not smart enough to come up with all the answers to this one.
I'll make a copy of an article by Robyn Young, a Neurologist in Alameda, that was in a recent ACCMA Bulletin. She talks about the problems of a profit-driven Health Insurance system. The basic issue is that so much of our costs for health insurance are really paying the insurance companies, that to use the present insurance structure like the Schwartzenneger proposal for California ammounts to a huge tax subsidy for the companies that have helped create the mess we now are in.
Yes, we will need more doctors, nurses and probably hospitals if universal access were in place. There are not enough providers in many inner city and rural areas to take care of currently disenfrachised people living there. Does this mean a new government program to administer a single payer system? Do you just give everyone a medicare card and let the "market forces" take over? Do you set up competition with vouchers for people to buy the kind of insurance they think meets their needs and keep the insurance companies as part of the system? I think the biggest challenge in a single payer system is keeping it from turning into the DMV, with long lines and impersonal service just because it's government and there is no other option out there.
How to handle a transition from a for-profit to not-for-profit system is another issue. Do you essentially nationalize the existing hospitals, or tax profits in such a way that changing to not-for-profit is the best option? And what to do with big systems like Kaiser that combine hospitals, physician groups and insurance companies?
The problem with doctors unionizing is that as it stands, we are all independent small businesses in competition with each other. If we get together to negotiate prices, it's like all the oil companies agreeing on what price to sell gas. The same anti-trust laws keep us from acting together to change things.
When is the show where we talk about this stuff? I can try to talk to some of the local docs who have worked on Single Payer for a long time so we have more facts to discuss.
Rich
Frank Moore wrote:
i think we need to take insurance companies out of the picture to have a real and workable universal health care. the swedes get a medical card every year and after they pay $150, everything else is covered! i think it is important that the patient choose her doctor and the treatment comes from that relationship.
we have long lines and impersonal service now. we can do better!
In Freedom,
Frank Moore
it seems it will be important that everybody have the same coverage, the same access. this way the rich/powerful will make sure that the coverage will be top-notch...because they will be in the same system as the rest of us.
seems like the reasons why most doctors don't take medi-cal are low pay and insane pre-authorization red tape....which are also the complaints against the insurance/hmo. how about no pre-authorization, but a possibility of a [random?] review afterward? again if everyone is in the system, doctors could get paid for how many patients under their care, rather than for visits or operations...providing the patients are well-served.
all hospitals should be not-for-profit. are we facing shortage of doctors, nurses, and hospitals now? would our equal access health care require more or less of these? the whole health care system....including drugs, medical equipment, etc...should be not-for-profit.
our health care should stress preventative medicine, public health, nutrition, and will include "alternative" medicine, herbs, and....well...human caring/care-givers. there will a place for high tech medicine. but it probably won't be the main thing...once we have removed huge profits from the system.
seems like at the heart of the system should be the relationship between the patient and her doctor whom she chooses.
all of this e-mail is raw jamming....the first stage of changing the system!
btw, why is it illegal for doctors to form unions?
looking forward to exploring these things with you on the show!
In Freedom,
Frank Moore
Richard Kerbavaz wrote:
Frank,
I'm clearly not smart enough to come up with all the answers to this one.
I'll make a copy of an article by Robyn Young, a Neurologist in Alameda, that was in a recent ACCMA Bulletin. She talks about the problems of a profit-driven Health Insurance system. The basic issue is that so much of our costs for health insurance are really paying the insurance companies, that to use the present insurance structure like the Schwartzenneger proposal for California ammounts to a huge tax subsidy for the companies that have helped create the mess we now are in.
Yes, we will need more doctors, nurses and probably hospitals if universal access were in place. There are not enough providers in many inner city and rural areas to take care of currently disenfrachised people living there. Does this mean a new government program to administer a single payer system? Do you just give everyone a medicare card and let the "market forces" take over? Do you set up competition with vouchers for people to buy the kind of insurance they think meets their needs and keep the insurance companies as part of the system? I think the biggest challenge in a single payer system is keeping it from turning into the DMV, with long lines and impersonal service just because it's government and there is no other option out there.
How to handle a transition from a for-profit to not-for-profit system is another issue. Do you essentially nationalize the existing hospitals, or tax profits in such a way that changing to not-for-profit is the best option? And what to do with big systems like Kaiser that combine hospitals, physician groups and insurance companies?
The problem with doctors unionizing is that as it stands, we are all independent small businesses in competition with each other. If we get together to negotiate prices, it's like all the oil companies agreeing on what price to sell gas. The same anti-trust laws keep us from acting together to change things.
When is the show where we talk about this stuff? I can try to talk to some of the local docs who have worked on Single Payer for a long time so we have more facts to discuss.
Rich
Frank Moore wrote:
i think we need to take insurance companies out of the picture to have a real and workable universal health care. the swedes get a medical card every year and after they pay $150, everything else is covered! i think it is important that the patient choose her doctor and the treatment comes from that relationship.
we have long lines and impersonal service now. we can do better!
In Freedom,
Frank Moore
posted by Lavapen | 5:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home