I am starring this and will try to read it later. The point on geriatrics is interesting.
On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 5:34 PM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Dana wrote: > > wowie I could spend an afternoon with google trying to figure out what > sam > > is reading > > If anyone cares to read the best end-to-end treatise on healthcare's > problems and solutions, you can answer all your questions here. > Unfortunately most people won't read it. And then they'll bitch about > health care without understanding anything. > > http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care > > Here are some highlights: > -------------- > * How was it possible that Dr. Pronovost needed to beg hospitals to > adopt an essentially cost-free idea that saved so many lives? Heres > an industry that loudly protests the high cost of liability insurance > and the injustice of our tort system and yet needs extensive lobbying > to embrace a simple technique to save up to 100,000 people. > > * For fun, lets imagine confiscating all the profits of all the > famously greedy health-insurance companies. That would pay for four > days of health care for all Americans. Lets add in the profits of the > 10 biggest rapacious U.S. drug companies. Another 7 days. > > * The most important single step we can take toward truly reforming > our system is to move away from comprehensive health insurance as the > single model for financing care. And a guiding principle of any reform > should be to put the consumer, not the insurer or the government, at > the center of the system. > > * The government regularly tries to cap costs by limiting the > reimbursement rates paid to providers by Medicare and Medicaid, and > generally pays much less for each service than private insurers. But > as weve seen, that can lead providers to perform more services, and > to steer patients toward higher-priced, more lightly regulated > treatments. > > * Cost control is a feature of decentralized, competitive markets, not > of centralized bureaucracya matter of incentives, not mandates. > Whats more, cost control is dynamic. > > * Although the population is rapidly aging, we have few > geriatricians... Why? Because under Medicares current reimbursement > system (which generally pays more to physicians who do lots of tests > and procedures), geriatricians typically dont make much money. If > seniors were the true customers, they would likely flock to > geriatricians, bidding up their ratesand sending a useful signal to > medical-school students. But Medicare is the real customer, and it > pays more to specialists in established fields. And so, seniors often > end up overusing specialists who are not focused on their specific > heal > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:302022 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
