latimes.com
Legislation may enable states to offer universal healthcare
To make universal coverage work at the state level, you'd need to channel federal healthcare funds into the system. A bill being drafted by Rep. Jim McDermott would allow that to happen.
David Lazarus - LA Times
Universal coverage, Medicare for all, single payer — call it what you will. It's clear that conservative forces are determined to prevent such a system from ever being introduced at the national level. So it's up to the states.David Lazarus - LA Times
The catch is that to make universal coverage work at the state level, you'd need some way to channel Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare funds into the system. At the moment, that's difficult if not impossible.
But legislation quietly being drafted by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) would change that. It would create a mechanism for states to request federal funds after establishing their own health insurance programs.
If passed into law — admittedly a long shot with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives — McDermott's State-Based Universal Healthcare Act would represent a game changer for medical coverage in the United States.
It would, for the first time, create a system under which a Medicare-for-all program could be rolled out on a state-by-state basis. In California's case, it would make coverage available to the roughly 7 million people now lacking health insurance.
"This is a huge deal," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica advocacy group. "This is a lifeline for people who want to create a Medicare system at the state level."
Your family doctor is now a team
Posted May 24, 2012, at 3:43 p.m.
When it came to being your family doc, I tried darn hard to do it all. I delivered your babies, took care of you in the hospital, palpated your parts, and much more. If space aliens had flown out of your navel I would have tried to fix that problem for you, too.
Unfortunately, it turns out that what I thought was pretty good care for you has not been good enough. I could not do enough comprehensive care of my patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart troubles, or other chronic diseases to help them avoid some preventable complications. Too many of my patients with congestive heart failure ended up in the hospital too often. I thought I was doing a great job, but I was wrong. Smart and dedicated, but wrong.
So were many thousands of my colleagues in primary care — the family docs, internists, family nurse practitioners and physician assistants who have been working like demons providing preventive and chronic illness care for millions of Americans. We practiced good care to the limits of our training and our resources, and it was not enough. Study after study started showing we were not doing nearly as good a job as we hoped.
When we figured that out, we did what good doctors always do; berated ourselves and worked harder. Pirates would have been impressed as we flogged ourselves until morale and performance improved. It barely helped. So we did it some more, which barely helped some more, but not enough.
Now, slowly and surely, we are coming to understand what it really takes to take great care of you in your primary care physician’s office — a whole darn team. That’s a team of nurses, medical assistants, office staff, computer geeks, and all the other people around town in emergency rooms, hospitals, specialist offices, labs, etc. that also help take care of you. And it takes you, too, more than ever. Your primary care is a team sport.
Control: An Update
By DOMINICK BROCATO and DW GIBSONAnxiety: We worry. A gallery of contributors count the ways.
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MJ SieberDominick Brocato in July 2011.
Last week’s Anxiety post, “Control,” featured an interview with Dominick Brocato, conducted and transcribed by DW Gibson, the author of the forthcoming book and documentary film, “Not Working.” Many readers who commented wanted to know how Mr. Brocato was managing his various challenges — unemployment, illness and a lack of medical insurance among them — since the interview, which took place in July 2011. To provide that update to readers, Mr. Gibson contacted Mr. Broacato by e-mail and phone earlier this week.
DW Gibson writes: When I contacted Dominick, I learned that he’d had surgery on his right knee (unrelated to his cancer) just the day before. I immediately suggested we talk later but he ignored the offer. True to my memory of him, he was at attention, instantly composed and engaged. His own words — “I am still a vital and vibrant person” — still echo in my head. The update below is composed of Dominick’s words from our e-mail correspondence this week and a follow-up conversation over the phone.
Maine hospital cuts 47 positions
By BETTY ADAMS Kennebec Journal
AUGUSTA -- MaineGeneral Medical Center is trimming 47 positions from its staff as a cost-cutting measure to meet its almost $400 million operating budget for the next fiscal year.
The move means 15 jobs will be eliminated and 32 vacant positions will not be filled, hospital officials said.
Those losing jobs have 45 days to apply for another job within the hospital, said Chuck Hays, president and chief executive officer for MaineGeneral Medical Center.
Staff reductions affect both MaineGeneral Medical Center and the parent organization, MaineGeneral Health, and are spread throughout the organization, Hays said.
"Three of the open positions were clinical," Hays said Friday. "The rest were support and administrative."
The hospital is building a $312 million regional hospital in north Augusta that will incorporate inpatient services from the Thayer campus in Waterville and replace the hospital on South Chestnut Street in Augusta.
Hays said that the job cuts will not affect the massive project.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine-hospital-cuts-47-positions.html
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