Obama Health Care Transcript

Here is  the transcript of President-Elect Obama talking about Healtth care.

Obama-Health Care

Barack Obama’s Health Care Policy Director, Tom Daschle, did a video talking about health care.

What do you think?

Surgery covered–In India?

Came across this: An insurance company will pay for your surgery–provided you go to India for the procedure. It’s called Medical Tourism. Wow. This is an outrage. This is more proof universal health care, whether its Dennis Kucinich’s plan, or someone else’s, needs to be passed. An outrage.

Health Care Thoughts

A recent NY Times Letter to the Editor featured letters about health care:

As “The Wrong Place to Be Chronically Ill” (editorial Nov. 18) points out, the American health care system desperately needs reform.

We could solve most of our problems with the patient-centered medical home, already shown to end the fragmentation of health care, reduce medical errors, help reduce costs and lead to greater patient satisfaction.

Medical homes provide whole-person care, rather than single-illness or single-organ treatment. Patients get preventive services, diagnosis and treatment for minor health problems, and coordinated care for chronic illnesses. They cut unnecessary emergency room use by offering extended office hours and same-day appointments.

Medical homes’ electronic health records ensure accurate patient charts and help communicate with subspecialists, hospitals, pharmacists and allied health professionals.

The medical home concept has gained widespread support. But this is just the beginning. Only when employers demand medical home benefits from health plans, and insurers cover those benefits, can we make a dent in the fragmentation, excessive costs and poor outcomes that plague our system today.

Ted Epperly
Boise, Idaho, Nov.20, 2008

The writer, a medical doctor, is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

 

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To the Editor:

The results of the Commonwealth Fund study are not surprising. Limited insurance benefits and rising premiums have contributed to the growing number of Americans who forgo medical care because of costs. Lack of electronic records, coordinated care and insufficient incentives to physicians also affect patient care.

As Americans continue aging, it is expected that chronic conditions will continue on the rise. Adult primary care physicians are at the forefront of chronic disease management. Unfortunately, it is expected that the country will face a shortage of between 35,000 and 44,000 adult care generalists by 2025.

Primary care has evolved into an overloaded and unsatisfactory choice for medical students and residents, who prefer more lucrative subspecialties that offer a better lifestyle. The solution to our health problems relies not only in the much-expected health care reform but also in making primary care a very appealing option.

Hernan Delgado
Boston, Nov.20, 2008

The writer, a medical doctor, is in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s Hospital, Boston.

Healthy San Fransisco

In San Fransisco, a form of Universal Health Care has arrived: They call it, “Healthy San Fransisco”. It convers all uninsured adults. It’s paid for by the city government, costing them 200 million. So let’s do some simple math. There are 82,000 uninsured adults in San Fransisco. It costs roughly 2,439 dollars per person. Not bad. Multiply 2,439 by 300,000,00 (the population, roughly in America) you get 731, 700, 000,000. This is a rough estimate, of course. And for all we know, it could cost ten times more. But, even with this economy, its doable. Sometimes its better to ’spend your way out’ of a defecit. Think of the Great Depression.  Get people more jobs, get companies like GM off retiree health benefits. Maybe that will actually get us out of this faster.