Ernie:
Token "socialist," yes, but a Saint-Simonian not a Marxist (
"neo" or anything else ).
Saint-Simonianism refers to what might better be called
Capitalist-Socialist,
a hybrid system that seeks public good through a blend of
private enterprise
and elected officials who take their responsibilities for the
people they
represent seriously ( objectively ) rather than ideologically.
But about the current bill, to be candid about it, it seems to
me to be excessively
partisan. Do we need health care reform ? We have needed it
since the era of FDR.
But it would have been far better to seek market solutions as
much as possible
instead of essentially as Democratic concessions to the GOP.
Such as creating
competition among insurance companies by allowing choice of
health plans
across state lines. This seems so totally obvious that it
boggles the mind
that it wasn't done. But where was discussion on the objective
merits ?
The Democrats didn't seem able to do any such thing because
of their mindset.
This said, a public option was also called for, which I have
always regarded as
absolutely necessary, and about that the Democrats fought each
other
to such an extent that it became impossible given Republican
opposition. That opposition struck me as utterly perverse.
Bottom line, along the way I became so disgusted with the whole
process
that I eventually tuned it out almost completely since whatever
came of the debate
it would be capitulation to special interests , little
conservative input, and
what you'd expect from lawyers.
And what the hell do student loans have to do with health care ?
Is the bill better than nothing ? I suppose so, but is that the
best that could be done ?
What a joke and what an insult to the whole country. But you'd
never know it
from media accounts which, true to form, are praising the result
as salvific.
We got a compromise .A bad compromise at that. Essentially
Congress makes me sick
--for which the health care bill provides no remedy.
Billy
========================================================
In a message dated 3/22/2010 10:01:45 A.M. Pacific Daylight
Time,
[email protected] writes:
I tend
to agree that whatever its political significance, the current bill is
a non-event in terms of truly transforming health care delivery. We
can only hope that whatever happens will encourage rather than
discourage innovation.
Billy, you're our token
socialist -- what do you think of the bill?
-- Ernie P.
Health
Care Reform Passes--Now Let's Start Health Care Innovation
Posted
by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 22, 2010
To
the surprise of many, Congress passed legislation this weekend that
extended US healthcare to nearly everyone in the country. Bravo. The US
joins the 19th century. The next trick is to try actual innovation in
health care that lowers costs and increases the healthcare experience
for Americans. There is almost nothing in the bill passed that does
that.
The US
already spends far more on healthcare innovation than any other country.
But government healthcare R&D has gone into life sciences that
haven’t paid off (genome) or advanced medical procedures that are
extremely expensive and help extremely few people. In terms of
longevity, the US lags Europe and Asia.
US
healthcare needs platform innovation that uses social media to connect
people to the medical system in new, cheaper, more personal and more
productive ways. Hello Health is one way to go. It’s founder, Dr. Jay Parkinson, has just
launched The
Future Well, a design consultancy that promises to extend the new
social media model for wellbeing across the country.
US
healthcare also needs the kind of demassing and decentralization that
design and innovation consultants can provide. Memorial
Sloan- Kettering (MSK) did workshops with students at the Parsons
School for Design to come up with small, inexpensive, neighborhood
chemo centers and it
just completed the first in Brooklyn.
The Mayo
Clinic is innovating broadly in
health care.
Clayton
Christensen has a great book on The Innovator’s Prescription that calls for disruptive
innovation in healthcare based on new business models. This is a very
important book.
Now
that the US has extended healthcare to all its citizens, the next step
is to cut costs and improve outcomes and experiences by harnessing the
best thinking of designers and innovators. Most of the concepts and
tools are already at hand.
=
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