We were all outraged about irrationally high medical cost as was explain in the "Bitter Pill" article in March 4 issue of Time magazine. Oddly, the author Steven Brill, does not have any medical background, but is known as the founder of CourtTV and the American Lawyer magazine. Apparently, the information was available to anyone who cared to look.
There is also a new book, Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father—and How We Can Fix It, which is critical of the cost of health care in this country. The author, David Goldhill, is also involved with TV as the CEO of the Game Show Network. The book is based on his Atlantic magazine article, How American Health Care Killed My Father.
So how come it took two TV executives to bring attention to high healthcare cost? Where were the healthcare professionals? It turns out that the call for healthcare reform has a long history, but was mostly ignored by the mainstream media. A prominent critic was Donald Berwick, who Obama wanted to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Republican opposition prevented his permanent appointment. This should have been a big news story, but received little attention. Maybe the importance of your issues are not enough, you need to know how media works to get attention.
There is now talk that Berwick will run for Massachusetts governor. If he wins the Democratic nomination his mostly Republican opponent would be Scott Brown, who was beaten by Elizabeth Warren in the last Senate race. That Senate race brought much needed attention to financial reform. So maybe the next Governor race will bring equal attention to healthcare reform.
I know more about politics than health care. It seems that one of Don Berwick's rumored Democratic opponents for Governor of Massachusetts in 2014 (Lt. Gov. Tim Murray) says he won't run for it and another (state treasurer Steve Grossman was involved at a high level in AIPAC for a couple of years in the late 90s. There seems to have been some kind of scandal involving Murray, Of course, some current member of Congress might decide to take a shot at the position,
ReplyDeleteMike, I'm glad you mentioned the David Goldhill book. I saw him interviewed by Jon Stewart; was trying to think of the title today, but couldn't.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion as to how to fix health care is the same as for fixing campaign finance. It is necessary to somehow curb the power of the special interests. It appears to be in the interests of the medical and phamaceutical professions to come up with more and more very expensive procedures, some of which might actually do more harm than good. I can think of several examples right now, but won't go into it in this forum. We must eliminate taxpayer coverage of some of the more non-cost-effective procedures, even if this means that a patient might die a bit sooner than if these procedures were applied.
Dory
Haven't read the Time article yet but will comment anyway.
ReplyDeleteHow many people can name any of the past directors of CMS or its predessors? It's an important position but not of Cabinet rank and is filled by an acting Director until the nominee finally gets approval and is appointed. That's why there is no outrage at a delay in appointment. CMS does not process any claims and doesn't distribute any money to providers or beneficiaries. It's all done through contractors. So if CMS shut down for a month who would know?
And if your party philosophy is small, ineffective government coupled with the elimination of socialistic entitlements then what's the rush.
Special interests vote their interests, not yours or mine. They vote with their checkbooks, the check's are written to the policymakers, and their interests are in improving their bottom line. It's not in the interests of the institutional or medical or pharmaceutical providers to change the system. It's working fine. And why is it working well, because the system is set up to pay for procedures and services, not outcomes. What outcomes do you want? You should be healthier after being treated or at least be likely to live a little longer. Lots of treatments don't extend your life but make it more bearable.
Read article, also heard couple of NPR shows on it. Many good books are out there on medical issues including cost. Not much I can personally do about it. I wish the media would keep this in people's awareness.The latest medical bill whose name I cannot think of right now(Obamacare) was promoted as a partial help to control costs--what a joke. Why are many people so opposed to sensible solutions to cost control? Not that I have the answers.
ReplyDeleteThe system of medical care in the USA is controlled by monopolies whose main objective is to assure that the 1% maintain their wealth.
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