Those are all legitimate concerns and ones that were problems before health insurance reform passed. Oregon, for instance, didn't have sufficient funding to pay for its low income child and family insurance plan. We had to hold a lottery to see who would be covered and that sucked. Of course, that is still more people than was covered before we started health insurance reform in Oregon a decade ago, so it isn't all bad either. As an interesting side note, that health insurance lottery is of great research interest. Researches have been quite interested to see whether there is a concrete relationship between health insurance coverage and positive health outcomes. We sort of assume there are but there are so many correlated variables that it is difficult to be sure. And it would be considered unethical to have researchers randomly choose people to cover and to not cover, so they've never been able to perform a rigorous experiment. Except now, that is exactly what the state has done. Taken a cohort of similar economic characteristics and randomly chosen some to be covered and some not to be. Sucks for those not chosen but researchers are interested in the outcome.
Health insurance reform is an important part of health care reform. I wish they had focused on cost containment more than access but access was something that certainly needs to be addressed. There is a lot more to do, however, to really get reform under way. We obviously need more general practitioners, we need malpractice reform and we fundamentally need to revise the fee for service model and move more toward a quality model that rewards doctors for people being healthy. That's going to be tough though. But at least the first steps have been taken. They say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Lets hope so. Judah On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 8:10 AM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: > > There's not enough name calling and venom on the list. A good thread about > health care always gets the vitriol up:) > > > > Faced with soaring costs and budget contraints, Williamson County's health > care district is tightening qualifications for those who apply for its > indigent health care program, requiring proof of > citizenship.<http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/wilco-tightens-indigent-health-care> > > This Texas county is going to require a valid SSN in exchange for indigent > health care program. Shades of AZ? Another quote from the article. > > The county has doubled in size the past decade, and costs for the indigent > care have soared 142 percent in the past two years. Last year, the program > dealt with 1,500 patients, 330 of whom were undocumented. > > > Maybe it's related to why AZ is trying to enforce federal immigration laws. > > > > Another Texas related article; > > Texas doctors are opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by > reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of > seniors > unaffordable.<http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7009807.html> > > Two years after a survey found nearly half of Texas doctors weren't taking > some new Medicare patients, new data shows 100 to 200 a year are now ending > all involvement with the program. Before 2007, the number of doctors opting > out averaged less than a handful a year. > > More than 300 doctors have dropped the program in the last two years, > including 50 in the first three months of 2010, according to data compiled > by the Houston Chronicle. Texas Medical Association officials, who conducted > the 2008 survey, said the numbers far exceeded their assumptions. > > > Looks like those greedy doctors aren't satisfied with their pay. Another > ringing endorsement of government ran health care? Maybe it's just a Texas > thing. > > By the way, Wal-green's in WA stopped taking medicare for drug > prescriptions. A pattern developing here? > > > > > Final article > > The new healthcare law will pack 32 million newly insured people into > emergency rooms already crammed beyond capacity, according to experts on > healthcare facilities. > <http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/98025-health-reform-threatens-to-overwhelm-already-crammed-emergency-rooms> > > A chief aim of the new healthcare law was to take the pressure off emergency > rooms by mandating that people have insurance coverage. The idea was that if > people have insurance, they will go to a doctor rather than putting off care > until they faced an emergency. > > <http://ad.thehill.com/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a9aaece3&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE> > People who build hospitals, however, say newly insured people will still go > to emergency rooms for primary care because they dont have a doctor. > > Massachusetts in 2006 created near-universal coverage for residents, which > was supposed to ease the traffic in hospital emergency rooms. > > But a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that > nearly two-thirds of the states residents say emergency department wait > times have either increased or remained the same. > > > > I have also read that there is a shortage of general care physicians, which > is leading to higher prices in some areas. If the government takes over > health care and runs it like it runs medicare, will there be more or less > incentive to go to med school? > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:318947 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
