Health junction

Bring It On 2010 With the country seemingly fomenting from one crisis to the next this past year, many of us are looking forward to a new beginning, let�s bring on that extra digit for 2010! This article highlights what one family did to make a difference in a social need, providing a little hope for the holidays. Nursing Shortage As the United States population continues to age, more of us will become hospital patients, which is of concern given the current 135,000 nursing vacancies across the country. Despite the economic downturn, a shortfall in nursing supply continues and is expected to grow to 260,000 in the next fifteen years. Which means, when we are older and more vulnerable, who will be there to care for us? Mid-course correction Donna grew up a middle child of seven, in the Great Lakes land of Swedes and Norwegians. When she became an adult she had seven children, four of them before age 24. After several cross-country moves she returned to school and completed her R.N. prog...

This week, lurid headlines were in all United States papers proclaiming a government charged task force of "experts" recommended rolling back frequency of breast mammograms from annually to once a decade if you are age 40 or wait fifteen years if you are age 35. My first reaction was WTF, followed by; I wonder how much they paid for this study. Since I am twice a breast cancer survivor, I consider myself to be somewhat of an "expert" and I have a health policy background. According to the Center for Disease Control, 74.6% of women in the United States who were forty and older received mammograms in 2005. The latest recommendation published in the Annals of Internal Medicine could have an adverse impact on the mammography rate for American women. In order to be fair, let us examine this from a rational perspective. The most salacious reason cited for reducing the prevalence of mammography in pre-menopausal women was the potential harm of the screening process. Excuse...

PBS had an interesting program about The Netherlands Health system last night. The Netherlands (Dutch), has been on the cutting edge of a number of health care issues over the years, including policies for physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill and allocation of resources for maternity and child care. Recently, the Dutch decided to switch from a single payer health care system to an open market, privately insured system, where every resident has a health care budget. This approach could work for the United States, but a number of changes would have to be made to the insurance regulatory infrastructure. This article addresses those system delivery concerns. Question of Scale First of all, lets talk about scale, The Netherlands is a tiny country compared to the United States, with excellent public transportation and health services in place for the entire country. In the USA, if you have a car, transportation is excellent, though costly, but access to healthcare in rural and p...

Baucus Health Plan Senator Baucus of Montana broke away from his committee to present his approach to a United States health care overhaul. His plan proposes a complicated series of benefit changes in Medicare/Medicaid, along with taxes on health care suppliers, employers, and individuals, depending on the health care scenario. It is like trying to look through depression era glass for the economy in this approach. First of all, I don�t think adding more taxes to an already expensive health care delivery system will make it less expensive. If anything, this type of proposal will drive more people into the government option Obama plan. Both the Obama and Baucus health plans rely on the employer system for health care financing, as opposed to a program based on individuals selecting their health plan from regional cooperatives, with a tax credit allowance, and some employer allowance. I am often asked why we expect employers to provide health care in the USA and my only answer is, "...

To listen to the vitriol regarding health care reforms for Americans, you would think we were in the civil war again. I have noticed a number of trends in blogs and citizens meetings on health care reform and thought I needed to speak up. Number one, insurance is not health care, it is a financing vehicle for people to pay for health care and this is available to approximately half of the United States population. In order to obtain "private health insurance" many conditions must exist such as: 1) The employer offers health care 2) The employee actually makes a living wage and can afford the premiums 3) A health insurance company serves their area and is accepted by clinicians and hospitals 4) The person is not disabled or otherwise uninsurable 5) Or an individual policy may be available in their region or rural locale Obviously a lot of employers are not offering health insurance, which is representative of the "private health care system" we have now. As an examp...

Overhauling Health Care Czarina Style The United States is known for its wastefulness of consumer goods and energy resources but the excess in our health care system is beyond comparison by all global measures. It is incomprehensible that informed citizens would chose to squander our national resources given a reasonable choice. This dilemma was aptly cited as a national crisis in the National Academy of Sciences Report to President Bush. It is essential that the correct problems be addressed in order to solve resource allocation and equity of distribution in US health care. This analysis explores various perspectives and clarifies what elements have the greatest opportunity for sustained change in the US healthcare system. Enhancing healthcare and delivering a more affordable product are not mutually exclusive. The polarization that occurs between the public and private healthcare camps only serves to undermine progress for better consumer outcomes. Sean Sullivan�s characterization o...