Is medical care a good business?
Posted Oct. 20, 2011, at 4:42 p.m.For the past several decades, America has been experimenting with applying the principles of business to our health care system. Many believed that by unleashing the power of markets, health care costs would be controlled and access and quality improved.That experiment has been a spectacular failure. Today, a larger percentage of Americans lack health insurance or are seriously under-insured than at any time since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid 46 years ago. That number is increasing every day.
For the past several decades, America has been experimenting with applying the principles of business to our health care system. Many believed that by unleashing the power of markets, health care costs would be controlled and access and quality improved.
That experiment has been a spectacular failure. Today, a larger percentage of Americans lack health insurance or are seriously under-insured than at any time since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid 46 years ago. That number is increasing every day.
Some states seek flexibility to push health-care overhaul further
Created Thursday, October 20, 2011
By Sarah Kliff
The Washington Post, Oct. 16, 2011
As far as health-reform boosters go, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is among the most stalwart.
“We want to show that health reform is something real, that it actually works,” he said. “Oregon is a place that can actually make it happen.”
His state has aggressively implemented the health overhaul Congress passed last year, taking more than $100 million in federal funding to do so.
But at the same time, the health-care law puts Kitzhaber (D) in a bind. This year, Oregon passed its own plan, which starts with changing how it pays doctors and eventually ends with allowing public employees to enroll in Medicaid, the federal insurance program for low-income Americans. There’s just one big obstacle: What Oregon wants to do would require the Obama administration to waive integral pillars of its signature legislative accomplishment.
http://www.pnhp.org/print/news/2011/october/some-states-seek-flexibility-to-push-health-care-overhaul-further
The Washington Post, Oct. 16, 2011
As far as health-reform boosters go, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is among the most stalwart.
“We want to show that health reform is something real, that it actually works,” he said. “Oregon is a place that can actually make it happen.”
His state has aggressively implemented the health overhaul Congress passed last year, taking more than $100 million in federal funding to do so.
But at the same time, the health-care law puts Kitzhaber (D) in a bind. This year, Oregon passed its own plan, which starts with changing how it pays doctors and eventually ends with allowing public employees to enroll in Medicaid, the federal insurance program for low-income Americans. There’s just one big obstacle: What Oregon wants to do would require the Obama administration to waive integral pillars of its signature legislative accomplishment.
http://www.pnhp.org/print/news/2011/october/some-states-seek-flexibility-to-push-health-care-overhaul-further
Gov. Schweitzer pushes universal health care in Montana, ahead of Affordable Care Act
Created Thursday, October 20, 2011
By Joan McCarter
Daily Kos, Fri Sep 30, 2011
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, not willing to wait for the Affordable Care Act to kick in in two or three years, is challenging the federal government to start having a dialogue about real health care reform now by allowing Montana to set up a system modeled on "SaskCare," the Saskatchewan health system, the first universal health care system among the Canadian provinces.
In an interview with Daily Kos Friday, Schweitzer talked about his rationale for the plan. It builds on a request he made last year for a Medicaid waiver for his state to set up a "Medicaid Part D" program, as he called it, a prescription benefit plan for all Montanans. That proposal, intended to hit at the heart of a long-time Schweitzer foe—the pharmaceutical industry—would have allowed the state to offer a prescription drug program to all Montana citizens that would provide the drugs at Medicaid prices.
http://www.pnhp.org/print/news/2011/october/gov-schweitzer-pushes-universal-health-care-in-montana-ahead-of-affordable-care-ac
Daily Kos, Fri Sep 30, 2011
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, not willing to wait for the Affordable Care Act to kick in in two or three years, is challenging the federal government to start having a dialogue about real health care reform now by allowing Montana to set up a system modeled on "SaskCare," the Saskatchewan health system, the first universal health care system among the Canadian provinces.
In an interview with Daily Kos Friday, Schweitzer talked about his rationale for the plan. It builds on a request he made last year for a Medicaid waiver for his state to set up a "Medicaid Part D" program, as he called it, a prescription benefit plan for all Montanans. That proposal, intended to hit at the heart of a long-time Schweitzer foe—the pharmaceutical industry—would have allowed the state to offer a prescription drug program to all Montana citizens that would provide the drugs at Medicaid prices.
http://www.pnhp.org/print/news/2011/october/gov-schweitzer-pushes-universal-health-care-in-montana-ahead-of-affordable-care-ac
More Americans skipping medical care to save money
Posted Sept. 27, 2011, at 7:31 p.m.
NEW YORK — More Americans ignored their doctor’s advice and skipped prescription drugs or medical procedures to save money in 2011 than a year earlier, a Consumer Reports survey shows.
Out From Behind the Counter
By BRUCE JAPSEN
CHICAGO — As the Walgreen Company pushes its army of pharmacists into the role of medical care provider, it is bringing them out from their decades-old post behind the pharmacy counter and onto the sales floor.
The pharmacy chain, based in Deerfield, Ill., and the nation’s largest, has renovated 20 stores in the Chicago area and is converting more than 40 in Indianapolis to get the pharmacist closer to patients. Pharmacists in the revamped stores are being kept away from the telephone, where dealing with insurance coverage questions and other administrative tasks occupy 25 percent of their time, Walgreen says.
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