UHC

Don McCanne writes the Quote of the Day over at PHNP, which one of the best quick reads on single-payer and its opponents. It is sent as a almost-daily email update if you are interested. This short video features Dr. McCanne talking about what is wrong with the Presidential Candidates' health care plans, and a Harvard business school professor talking about why she likes them (choice). Dr. McCanne's written comment is available after the break.

Today's Quote of the Day, from Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) deals with two types of markets and their relationship to health care. It is based on an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The theory of the various market systems is not my specialty, however, this articles does a good job of simplifying the competing market models.

Individual resources and choices determine the distribution of health care, with little sense of collective obligation or a role for government. Known as market justice, this approach derives from principles of individualism, self-interest, personal effort, and voluntary behavior. The contrasting approach, social justice, allocates goods and services according to the individual's needs. It stems from principles of shared responsibility and concern for the communal well-being, with government as the vehicle for ensuring equity.

Now, I actually think that Ayn Rand did a good job of "imagining" the worst case scenario in the social justice market in Atlas Shrugged. If you are looking for the worst-case scenario in the market justice model, look no further than health care in America.

Software development - I believe in market justice. Auto manufacturing - I believe in market justice (more so than many Democrats and Republicans that feel we should prop up Michigan's failing auto industry). A system which decides the very life and death of people - not so much.

...Social justice in health care requires universal coverage and ensured access to care, whether through social insurance, private insurance, or some combination.

It seems the dialogue has begun and the ground swell is well underway to insert some sanity -- forcefully if necessary -- into the American Health care system. Whether or not they have the spine to speaking out in favor of Universal Health Care, there aren't many people around anymore who will claim the system is fine and we don't need to touch it.

A glaring case in point came across my googly reader today.

When the City of Salisbury comes to mind, lots of people think of our Senior Senator, who claims to be from that quaint little town, just as she claims to be from North Carolina. Milking our state for all it's worth, Elizabeth Dole has parlayed the illusion of residency for a career of personal gain and power. One of the ultimate insiders in the DC establishment, Dole seems to care little about her hometown, and even less about her home state.

But today readers all around the world are getting another view of Salisbury, through the eyes of a different woman, courtesy of the New York Times.

SALISBURY, N.C. — Vicki H. Readling vividly remembers the start of 2006.“Everybody was saying, ‘Happy new year,’ ” Ms. Readling recalled. “But I remember going straight to bed and lying down scared to death because I knew that at that very minute, after midnight, I was without insurance. I was kissing away a bad year of cancer. But I was getting ready to open up to a door of hell.” Ms. Readling, a 50-year-old real estate agent, is one of nearly 47 million people in America with no health insurance.

Fire as Pure Stochastic Patterns

The USA Today gives a nice round-up of the Health Care issues that MIGHT come before the feds. The article reminds me of a comment I read somewhere, the person said that they read the paper shaking their heads saying "We've been talking about that online for weeks." So it is with this story. The focus of this story is the Ron Wyden bill for "universal health care" that will be introduced in January.

Woe is the JLF, for the poor timing of their pitiful attack on Universal Health Care (a.k.a. Health Care for All), or "Welfare" as JLF likes to call it, they planned it for the same week that a brilliant analysis on what we already spend for Health Care in the US comes out. The New York Times has an article describing how much health care is already paid with tax dollars, tax subsidies, and the like. Guess what?

"So government accounts for about two-thirds of health care spending,"

What! Well, that is just outrageous. The government pays for 2/3 of health care in this country, but only covers about 1/3 of the population. Why? Because the insurance industry is supposed to work like this. You insure the entire population. The healthy people pay for the care for the sick. That's why it is "insurance". The private insurance companies, however, have cherry-picked the healthiest individuals for coverage. Thus, they only pay 1/3 of the total cost to cover the "healthy" 2/3 of our society. The rest?

An interesting article from Long Beach. Dr. Robert Gumbiner founded FHP in 1961, which went on to become one of the largest HMOs in the country. Remember that once upon a time the argument was that doctors were padding their bills by prescribing tests that were big money makers even when they weren't needed. HMOs were going to save us money by keeping doctors' choices on the up and up. Of course, what we ended up with was a corporation making your medical decisions and penalizing doctors that "waste" money on tests they feel are necessary.

So, perhaps it comes as no surprise that the man who was at the forefront of developing the HMO, now comes out solidly against them. From the Physicians for a National Health Program.

Of course, it's just those lazy welfare mom's that don't have health insurance. It's good for nothing slouches that don't have work, don't look for work. THEY are the people you want to cover with your expensive Universal Health Care, with my taxes.

Bzzzzt. The welfare mom myth. The lazy drag on the economy myth. I've said it before, I'll say it again.

The uninsured? We used to call them the Working Class.

An interesting article from the policy journal Health Affairs. They look at issues relating to Primary Care Physicians in seven countries - notably they leave out the Nordic countries that provide better care through higher taxes. I don't know if I have a point to all of this, but I just wanted to show you some of the differences in quality of care and type of care that we are left with here in the US becauses of our current fragemented system. Quotes and thoughts after the break.

Let's say you're self-employed, maybe running a small company like many of my friends. Maybe running a web-design company, or a you are a free-lance writer, or whatever. Things are going well, you're thinking of maybe expanding, maybe taking "that" vacation with your spouse, maybe being able to send the kids to college. Then, this happens.

Hundreds of actors, artists, musicians and writers in California are facing massive increases in their health insurance premiums, a situation that could face other consumers who don't have employer-sponsored health plans, advocates and lawmakers said.

Cigna Corp., which has sold insurance to members of the entertainment industry through their professional associations for 25 years, is raising premiums for actors and others by an average of 82%, with some hikes as high as 254%.

Under the Cigna increases, premiums on its point-of-service plan will rise to $1,022 a month for single members in the Los Angeles area beginning Jan. 1. Family point-of-service coverage would jump to $2,485 a month.