Health Care Reform

Why do I feel like reform and "change" that we voted for is being hijacked? I hope the President puts Congress in its place next week when he addresses them. They are acting like a bunch of unruly children. It's time for the gloves to come off. Bipartisan is a nice idea but I don't see it working.
Now is the time to give directives. We sent a message on Election Day. It's time the message was heard.
We need a public option. Without it we are at the mercy of the health insurance companies and it sends them a message that they can lobby and buy their way into the government. Enough of that! We've had it and it doesn't work.
Our congressman have no incentive to vote for change because change in health care won't affect them. They already have excellent health care. The only way to get their attention is to threaten them with the loss of their jobs. If they don't vote for health care reform with a public option, we won't vote for them come election day.

Why we need healthcare reform

Do you know your health care coverage can be rescinded and your bills go unpaid even after a procedure or treatment has been approved by your insurance company? Think this can't happen? Think again.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rescind17-2009jun17,0,3508020,full.story
In a government meeting recently to discuss health care insurance practices and possible solutions, all three insurance companies represented refused to agree that they would not rescind care previously approved for any reason other than fraud. In fact, it was discovered that employees were rewarded when they rescinded the care of policy holders.
If this isn't an outrage, I don't know what is.

Patient Advocate

This past week has been a bit traumatic. Without going into all the details, suffice it to say that I had to raise hell to get care for a family member at a local hospital when it should have been something that automatically happened.
I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't persisted in taking my cause up the chain of command until I got someone to pay attention and see that the proper care was delivered in a timely manner. Yes, I know I'm being vague but I am protecting the patient. Believe me, anyway, when I tell you the situation was dire and it was only by making a royal pain out of myself that a potential disaster was avoided.
It was something I should not have had to do. Is health care that bad? This particular hospital is a good one but the problems I saw was a doctor who overbooked procedures either from a lack of staff/facilities or greed, and staff [nursing, administration] who did not advocate for the patient, who thought that by merely acknowledging a problem, writing up a report, documenting in notes, that their job was done.
NO!
They have an obligation to take the problem up the ladder until a satisfactory solution is reached. In our particular case, a medical device needed to be inserted in a timely manner. But the patient was put off for days. The patient was admitted on Sunday afternoon and we were told on Tuesday morning that it was scheduled for Wednesday despite the patient's deteriorating condition. Instead of the procedure [which took all of an hour], medication was being given [which caused other side effects] and the emergency cart was placed outside the patient's door in case it was needed.
Unacceptable to me! And believe me when I tell you they heard about it.
We were lucky. The procedure was done on Tuesday morning and the patient is doing well.
But I have to wonder how many other patients are compromised on a daily basis by hospitals and doctors and staff across this country who do less than what is best for their patients. And families accept their behavior because they don't know any better and they mistakenly believe their family member is getting the best care available.
I think the time has come to take the system to task.
What Jon Stewart is doing to financial advisors, we need to do to healthcare.

The Aging Boomers and Health Trends

Health care has been in the news a lot lately. President Obama had made it one of the rallying cries during his campaign and we are poised, it seems, to tackle that issue very soon now that the stimulus bill has passed. Tomorrow, he will address both houses of Congress and I will bet you that health care will be high on the list of the things he talks about.
Why is health care such a hot potato? Because it is a large part of the nation's budget and it's a large part of every household budget. And it promises to get bigger. Not only are we faced with dealing with people who currently have no insurance because of the job market, but the health demographics of this nation are about to change in ways we have never seen before.
Like it or not [and they don't], the Baby Boomers are aging. They are approaching retirement and that phase of life when health costs increase. Couple that with a system that no longer works and we have a problem that definitely needs to be addressed.
President Obama wants to computerize medical records in an effort to drive down costs and make health information more useable, decrease errors, and improve care.
That's a good start but I think we need to do more. Life expectancy is going to go up. The looming nursing shortage has to be tackled - now, before we're in trouble, not after. We need to encourage doctors to specialize in the field of geriatrics [The Gerontological Society of America (2008, April 25). Baby Boomer Health Care Crisis ]. But the need goes beyond that - nursing assistants, social workers, nursing homes, assisted living centers, agencies that offer oversight for meals and care - all of this needs to be revamped as the largest generation ever seen marches slowly into older life. It might seem to be an overwhelming problem but not if we start now.