Should health care in America be a right?
Posted Nov. 17, 2011, at 11:43 a.m.America is the only wealthy country in the world that does not guarantee its people access to health care as a fundamental right. More than 15 percent of Americans are uninsured and many more are seriously underinsured. That was the bottom line message of T.R. Reid, author of the best-selling book “The Healing of America” and the television documentary based on it, “Sick Around The World.”All other wealthy democracies provide universal health care to their residents, and do it for about half of what the U.S. spends. Reid, who was on a speaking tour of Maine last week, has studied health care in more than a dozen countries. He has concluded that America too could establish a universal health care system that covers everybody and simultaneously reduces overall costs. All that is required is the political will to do so.Why has every country other than the U.S. made health care a human right? Reid attributes it to two basic factors.
America is the only wealthy country in the world that does not guarantee its people access to health care as a fundamental right. More than 15 percent of Americans are uninsured and many more are seriously underinsured. That was the bottom line message of T.R. Reid, author of the best-selling book “The Healing of America” and the television documentary based on it, “Sick Around The World.”
All other wealthy democracies provide universal health care to their residents, and do it for about half of what the U.S. spends. Reid, who was on a speaking tour of Maine last week, has studied health care in more than a dozen countries. He has concluded that America too could establish a universal health care system that covers everybody and simultaneously reduces overall costs. All that is required is the political will to do so.
Why has every country other than the U.S. made health care a human right? Reid attributes it to two basic factors.
Common Health 10/19/11
Host: Jim Fisher
Engineer: Amy Brown
Engineer: Amy Brown
Issue: Paying for Health Care
Program Name: Common Health
Broadcast Date: 10/19/2011
Broadcast Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Program Name: Common Health
Broadcast Date: 10/19/2011
Broadcast Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Program Topic: Paying for Health Care
Key Discussion Points:
a) Why are health insurance rates increasing dramatically this year?
b) What are the impacts of the Affordable Care Act?
c) What are the likely impacts of Public Law 90 – LD 1333?
Key Discussion Points:
a) Why are health insurance rates increasing dramatically this year?
b) What are the impacts of the Affordable Care Act?
c) What are the likely impacts of Public Law 90 – LD 1333?
Guests by name and affiliation:
A) Dr. Wendy Wolf, President of the Maine Health Access Foundation wwolf@mehaf.org
B) Dr. Philip Caper, Retired physician and health advocate
A) Dr. Wendy Wolf, President of the Maine Health Access Foundation wwolf@mehaf.org
B) Dr. Philip Caper, Retired physician and health advocate
Call In Program: Yes
Political Broadcast: No
Political Broadcast: No
http://archives.weru.org/common-health/common-health-101911
A Conversation Many Doctors Won’t Have
By PAULA SPANAt Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island, where she’s a medical director, Dr. Joan Teno has grown accustomed to patients being admitted with no clear understanding of their condition or prognosis. “The oncologist has told them, ‘It’s time to take a holiday from chemo,’” she said. “It’s a way not to have a conversation he or she finds hard to do.”
So the hospice staff has to explain, compassionately but directly, what the physician didn’t say: that chemotherapy isn’t working. That the cancer isn’t curable or effectively treatable. That death is near.
Is this too scary a discussion? Too apt to cause the patient grief or fear, or torpedo the family’s hopes?
Gingrich think tank collected millions from health-care industry
By Dan Eggen,
A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups, offering special access to the former House speaker and other perks, according to records and interviews.
Pay Attention To Health Insurance Non-Benefit Costs!
Posted By Merton Bernstein On November 16, 2011 @ 12:47 pm In All Categories,Consumers,Health Care Costs,Insurance,Spending | No Comments
The McKinsey Global Institute reported in 2007 [1] and 2008 [2] that the United States spends twice as much for health care as for food. According to Census [3] and Department of Agriculture [4] data that pattern continues. Yet millions remain outside the protection of health insurance and many nominally within its bounds are seriously underinsured. Millions of individuals and thousands of businesses stagger under the cost of health care, many state and local communities find them unmanageable and some businesses find them a handicap or unaffordable. Alas, health insurance premiums continue to rise – on average another 9 percent in 2011. Medical care costs can change direction if policy makers stop whistling past a significant contributor – non-benefit costs.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2011/11/16/pay-attention-to-health-insurance-non-benefit-costs/print/
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2011/11/16/pay-attention-to-health-insurance-non-benefit-costs/print/
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