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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