Sep
6
What Do We Need? Health Care. When Do We Need It? Yesterday.
Filed Under Healthcare Reform | 25 Comments
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=10023623&nav=menu183_9_4
“I lost my job on my 65th birthday,” said Sandra Burt, of Concord, N.H. “I had been with the company for 40 years.”
Burt, 66, is the face of the health care problem. Without work she had no health insurance and could not pay her $2,700 a month bill for medication to treat her autoimmune disorder.
She wants the nation’s health care system overhauled.
“We are doing everything we can to get this bill passed but people listen to me because you will all be on Medicare some day and it’s not a good situation. We need help yesterday,” Burt said.
Hundreds like Burt gathered at UVM to share problems and offer solutions as part of a Regional White House health care forum. There will be five around the country. The president asked Governor Jim Douglas and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to host this one.
Reporter Kristin Carlson: Why do you think Vermont was selected to host this?
Gov. Douglas: The president wanted to reach out to America to different regions, to governors of both parties to look at states like Massachusetts and Vermont that have been at the forefront of health care reform.
State officials, doctors, business owners and health care users tackled problems like prescription drug costs and too much paperwork.
“There is tremendous waste in the system,” said Jim Weinstein, of the Dartmouth Institute for Health. “And we designed a very poor health care system with little accountability.”
Some say the system is so broken, they want a single-payer health care system. Everyone agreed preventive care is key since chronic illnesses contribute so much to rising costs.
“Considering the debt and economic crisis this country is in we have to think about preventive care for the youth as well,” said Bronwyn Fleming-Jones, a senior at UVM.
There were no new ideas but a big chorus for change that the president’s health care representative will take back to Washington.
The forum was set to last for an hour and a half– it went for two hours and there were still people who wanted to talk, so the government is collecting comments online.
Hoping for some change at
http://www.michaelmoore.com
Duration : 0:2:27
Sep
3
http://www.house.gov/paul
http://CampaignForLiberty.com
Last Saturday many concerned Americans watched in horror as the House passed the healthcare reform bill. If this bill makes it through the Senate, it would massively overhaul the way healthcare is delivered in this country. Today, obviously, we dont have a perfect system, but this legislation takes all the mistakes we are making with healthcare and makes them worse. Most of what is wrong with healthcare stems from decades of government intervention and the resulting unintended consequences.
But the governments prescription for the ills caused by intervention is always more intervention. We see this not only in healthcare policy, but also in foreign policy, in economic policy, and in monetary policy – basically, in all areas of public policy. It was even claimed that the House bill would increase competition in healthcare, and thereby improve the private sectors business model for insurance.
It is fascinating that politicians would use the language of the free market in this way to justify more corporatism. This demonstrates a couple of things. One, that politicians truly do not understand the very basic tenets of a free market. By definition, a free market is free from government intervention. But once a little intervention is accepted as legitimate, politicians will blame the problems created by their intervention on the free market and present themselves as saviors that must intervene even more.
It also demonstrates that politicians know that Americans still believe the free market is a good thing. People know and understand that competition among businesses is better for the consumer than a monopoly. However, competition between a private business and a government or government-favored entity is not real competition.
In real competition, your competitor can go bankrupt if they do a bad job. Everyone knows a government program is forever, no matter how poorly it performs. In real competition, efficiency is necessary for survival. In government programs, waste is rewarded as budgets are often determined by how much money a department is able to consume in a year. In real competition, one business does not have regulatory or taxation authority over its competitors. In real competition, businesses get sued and punished for breaking contracts and defrauding people, and are kept accountable in this way. But just try to sue the government when you are unjustly harmed by it!
The reason real competition is a good thing is because good businesses get bad ones out of the consumers way. Can the government put someone out of business? Most certainly! But it will have the opposite effect: an otherwise good business will be replaced by a poorly performing government agency, or a government-favored monolithic business that behaves almost like a government agency.
If Washington really wanted to give consumers more choices they would remove legislative and regulatory barriers to competition across state lines for health insurers. They would remove barriers for new and innovative models of healthcare and tort reform. They wouldnt have run so many church and charitable hospitals out of business. Washington is keenly interested in healthcare reform, but it is certainly not going to increase competition or to expand your options for healthcare.
Duration : 0:3:35
Aug
22
Let’s hope that 2010 will be the last year in which not a single incumbent state senator or councilor faces a primary challenge.
Read more
Aug
19
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/sickaroundamerica/ Buy the DVD: http://www.shoppbs.org/entry.point?entry=3511819&source=PBSCS_YOUTUBE_FRL62710_SICKAMERICA:N:DGR:N:N:309:QPBS FRONTLINE investigates the failures of America’s health care system in “Sick Around America,” airing Tues, March 31 at 9 pm on PBS (check local listings).
As the worsening economy leads to massive job losses—potentially increasing the ranks of the tens of millions of Americans without health insurance—FRONTLINE travels the country examining the nation’s broken health care system and exploring the need for a fundamental overhaul. The scale of the problem now facing the Obama administration, FRONTLINE finds, is staggering, as lay-offs, major illness, and other unexpected life changes leave more and more Americans uninsured, underinsured, or uninsurable. FRONTLINE also goes inside insurance companies to question executives on their policies, programs, and priorities and examines the problems in one state’s attempts at health care reform.
Duration : 0:0:31
Aug
19
SeeChange Health Delivers Value-Based Benefit Plans Using HealthEdge’s Next-Generation HealthRules Product Suite
Filed Under Healthcare Reform | Leave a Comment
BURLINGTON, Mass.—-HealthEdge, provider of the only modern, enterprise-class software platform for healthcare payors, today announced that SeeChange Health has gone live with the patented HealthRules product suite.
Read more
Aug
17
Dr Whiting on The Health Care Crisis
Filed Under Healthcare Reform | 1 Comment
The topic of health care in America is probably one of the most heated debates in many decades. The country seems to be pretty much divided as to which side of this issue they are on. As one who has worked in nutrition and alternative medicine for over 30 years, I see one issue that has been only briefly mentioned. Regardless of which viewpoint you hold or which program ultimately comes from this issue, any program will fail sooner or later due to the gross economic burdens, which will increase with each passing year. If we do not factor in the one concept that has been missing from this discussion, namely prevention, any program will be doomed to fail. The Obama Health Care Plan as it has been called, leans toward a Government run health insurance program for those who cannot afford private insurance, yet with the Obama Health Care Plan, if prevention is not promoted and in fact demanded, the costs could be unaffordable. Any program, no matter what it is called, be it the Obama Health Care Plan, the Bailout Health Care, Health Care Reform, or Universal Health Care, will have to have strong emphasis upon prevention in order for it to be effective. Preventing illness can save trillions of dollars over the next few years alone. Consider that obesity is responsible for dozens and dozens of health problems, most of which could be prevented by proper weight management programs. As an example, the fear of the flu virus or the H1N1 virus. If we teach people to live a healthier lifestyle, they would have the strength of their immune system to ward off such viruses much more often, cutting costs of treatment. In this heated argument where people are putting their emphasis and energies on tea party demonstrations and forming groups like the HAARM or the Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine, all of which have their place, we should be placing equal emphasis on demanding more programs that are aimed at preventing health problems instead of solely on how we will treat these disorders. No system can hope to survive financially unless prevention of the thousands of medical incidences are at the core. Consider such factors as obesity, cigarette smoking, lack of exercise, poor diet, and a lack of dietary supplements. Each of these factors could be relatively easily addressed. Instead we are focusing on health care bailouts, Health Care Reform, or Universal Health Care instead of the real health care program of prevention. Town hall health care meetings and health care debates will only go so far. No matter what the outcome, if prevention is not at the core of the program, any program, it surely will fail. Whether you subscribe to saving health care through universal health care, through private insurance programs, or perhaps a combination of both, we are still going to have to face the fact that unless we learn to change our lifestyles to prevention based concept, the costs will continue out of reach. Even government sponsored health care plans may not be able to afford the rising costs of health care in America. Consider that obesity is the cause of so many preventable diseases including type II diabetes, the most epidemic disease in America. Prescription drug costs are out of control with drug companies making billions more in profits each year more than at any time in history. Sadly, the majority of people are taking at least some drugs that they dont need. Our senor citizens are the most at risk as they are often taking 10 or more powerful prescription drugs at any one time, leaving them feeling less than well. Not only is this a disservice to the client, the costs of maintaining this drugging of our citizens is astronomical. By following simple concepts of prevention such as learning to eat better, saving junk foods for treats instead of the staple of the diet, exercising at least 3 days a week, and taking a Full Spectrum supplement providing the 100+ nutrients the body needs on a daily basis, could save any health care system trillions of dollars over the next decade alone. Health care reform must start from the inside. Our system of health care is based upon breakage and repair. In order for the medical system to survive they must have a regular influx of patients with treatable diseases or disorders.
In this video you will learn about: Obama Health Care Plan, Town Hall Health Care Meetings, Prevention, Health Care Debate, Government Health Insurance, Obama Care, Socialistic Health Care, Bailout Health Care, Health Care on Capital Hill, Health Care Reform, Health Care Crisis, American Health Care, Tea Party, Keys to Prevention, HAARM, Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine, Glenn Beck, Universal Health Care, H1N1 virus, Flu Virus, Real Health Insurance, Saving Health Insurance, Diet and Prevention, Exercise and Prevention, Supplements and Prevention.
Duration : 0:8:55
Aug
14
Ron Paul: If spending were solution, there’d be no problem
Filed Under Healthcare Reform | 9 Comments
Sponsor: http://RidleyReport.com/Class – Learn more about Ron Paul’s weekly broadasts at: http://house.gov/paul/
But if you want to see illustrated versions, RidleyReport.com is your one stop shop. This one he recorderd 3/2/09 and I edited months later.
Public domain Video from htttp://Archive.org/details/prelinger
Detroit image in thumbnail shot by Angelique DuLong licns ccasa2.5g
How you can buy an advert here on the Ridley Report
http://RidleyReport.com/Ad
spending ron paul illustrated ridleyreport federal reserve new hampshire taxes big government brother staters urban decay detroit rot free state project out of control spending nh, inflation dave ridley report hyperinflation liberty savings deflation recession a $1 Coin National Debt rand paul, gq magazine college money pumped into economy bailout recovery slowed slowing ben bernanke fed to buy u.s. debt. Article ted stevens plane crash live free or die health care reform debt reduction basil marceaux monetary policy libertarian ben bernanke barack hussein obama
Duration : 0:4:14
Aug
13
BOSTON—-Health Dialog today released a new report, Care Management Meets Health Reform: Implications for Health Plans in an Evolving Consumer Marketplace. This research provides insights on how health reform will change consumers health insurance purchasing patterns and how health plans can position themselves for success in this shifting environment.
Read more
Aug
11
Raghu For Congress Ad
Filed Under Healthcare Reform | Leave a Comment
Raghu introduces new approaches for solving America’s toughest economic problems from the housing and real estate crisis to the Federal Deficit, health care reform and jobs. His approach is being branded Raghunomics for his blend of Vedic perspectives along side the issues of the day
Duration : 0:0:49
Aug
10
Sage Healthcare Division Supports National Health Center Week for 4th Consecutive Year
Filed Under Healthcare Reform | 1 Comment
Employees Volunteer Time at Community Health Centers Across the U.S.
Read more