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9/11-15/08 
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HEALTH CARE REFORM
FACTS & LINKS
- Healthcare: Part II:
Medical Care: Availability, Not Cost Could Be The Real Crisisby Col. Frank Ryan, USMC Ret.
The health care crisis seems to be on everyone's mind today. Politicians have unique solutions to sell you with the objective being your vote. Getting your vote is, unfortunately, not what good health care is really about.
The medical care crisis is real and it is multi-faceted. While we mainly focus on cost and the uninsured, the real concern should be about availability. The number of doctors over age 55 is significant. When those doctors retire, the question will not be about cost of medical care but instead it will be about the rationing of medical care. The shortage of practicing nurses is already well known but the shortage of doctors is only now becoming a focus of discussion.
In order to revitalize our health care system and provide the solid foundation necessary for access to health care for all, we must drastically overhaul how health care is thought of today.
The individual is the starting point for good health care. We cannot continue to rely on drugs or surgery to reverse years of poor health habits and poor diets. The true solution to our health care crisis is personal responsibility. This will take years to be effective but it is the only true long term solution.
In the shorter run, our health care system must emphasize wellness and not illness. At present, the emergency room is the physician of choice for many Americans at great cost to all. It is important to allow nurse practitioners, physician assistants and nurses greater autonomy in providing medical care. Not all medical issues require a doctor. Additionally, the AMA and research facilities should be encouraged to develop standard medical examinations and treatment for each risk group or age, especially the aged. This improves early diagnosis and allows for treatment at a much lower cost than remediation later.
Medical systems must be streamlined by providing funds that will be used to renovate health facilities and find creative means of providing health care. Let the private enterprise system encourage solutions. Government imposed pricing with Medicare and Medicaid, regulatory approval processes, and litigation risks all work together to deny you the very thing that our political leaders tell you they are working for. Additionally, insurance companies frequently base their reimbursements on Medicare and Medicaid, while at the same time requiring additional paperwork to justify payments. More realistic rate structures and simplified billing administration are needed to encourage the free market system to work as they are intended to work.
Tort Reform is needed as well. We must limit non-economic damages for awards, and give the state licensing board greater latitude to punish negligence. Concurrently, physicians and health care providers have to be willing to police their own ranks.To alleviate the shortage of health care professionals, we need to encourage careers in health care through a nationwide tuition assistance program, loans, and tax incentives. It is absurd that our tax code fails to reward education. If you want to fight medical care shortages, encourage the career (and all careers for that matter) by providing for the deductibility from income of tuition payments. To provide for care to the poor, non-profit health care facilities will partially fill the gap but I would also recommend that the tax code be modified to allow health care practitioners to deduct the market value of their charity care to the poor as a tax deduction on their tax returns.
Prescription drug approval processes and research are needed to significantly reduce the costs of developing new drugs. Making villains out of drug companies to get votes is counterproductive.Finally, revision of HIPPA and the Stark Act to reduce unnecessary and cumbersome regulations which increase costs but do not improve health care should be undertaken immediately. Once again, the Congress passed well intentioned bills with no understanding of the impact on the industry.
Great health care emphasizes wellness, personal responsibility, and a society that is willing to lead the effort of encouraging health care careers. Bandages will not fix our health care problems today but redefining how health care is provided will. We need to break health care in order to fix it.
Col. Frank Ryan, USMC (ret.), serves on the board of directors of the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc. and he is a commentator for American Radio Journal.)LINKS:www.DownsizeDC.org “Government cripples you, then hands you a crutch and says, 'See, if it wasn't for us, you couldn't walk.'” — Harry BrowneGovernment policies have crippled American health care. This crippling has then been used as a justification for creating government crutches. And these crutches have caused our health care system to atrophy still further. The trend is not good. We must attack this problem from a number of angles, starting with preventing the federal government monopoly of health care.MEDICAL AND UNIVERSITY ADVOCATES
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) advocates a universal, comprehensive Single-Payer National Health Program. PNHP has more than10,000 members and chapters across the United States. Since 1987, they have advocated for reform in the US health care system.
PNHP home page: www.pnhp.org
PNHP National links: www.pnhp.org/links/national.php
PNHP Articles of Interest www.pnhp.org/news/articles_of_interest.php
American Medical Women's Association (AMWA),
... an organization of women physicians and medical students
POSITION PAPER on Universal Access to Health Care andHealth System Reform
www.amwa-doc.org/index.cfm?objectid=245B8A0D-D567-0B25-567DCF32EFDF774E
American Medical Students Association (AMSA)...more than 30,000 members nationwide endorses a Universal Health Care systemfor all Americans.
www.amsa.org/hp/uhcinitiative.cfm
www.amsa.org/legislativecenter
American College of Physicians
"No Health Insurance? It's Enough to Make You Sick"-Scientific Research Linking the Lack of Health Coverage to Poor Health
www.acponline.org/uninsured/lack-contents.htm
Boston University School of Public Health
U.S. Health Reform Program
www.healthreformprogram.org
U.S. Health Reform http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/hs/ushealthreform.htm
Monitoring Project: http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/hs/accessandaffordability.htm
Prescription Drug Reform:
http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/hs/ushealthreform.htm
State Burden Prescription Drug Fact Sheets
http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/hs/State by state fact sheets.htm
NON-PARTISAN ACTION GROUPS
UHCAN- Universal Health Care Action Network
www.uhcan.org
UHCAN Health Care Access Resolution
www.uhcan.org/HCAR/index.html
Endorsements for the Health Care Access Resolution
www.uhcan.org/HCAR/endorsers.htm
CITIZENS Health Care Working Group Take Action
www.citizenshealthcare.gov/index.php
Our Health Care Future
www.ourhealthcarefuture.orgNational Coalition on Health Care:
www.nchc.org
The nation's largest and most broadly representative alliance working to improve America's health care. The Coalition is non-partisan, is comprised of almost 100 organizations, employing or representing about 150 million Americans. Membersare united in the belief that we need health care coverage for all, cost management, improvement of health care quality and safety, equitable financing and simplified administration.
The Coalition brings together large and small businesses, the nation's largest labor, consumer, religious and primary care provider groups, and the largest health and pension funds. Distinguished leaders from academia, business, and government have also pledged their support of the Coalition'sefforts. The Coalition's Honorary Co-Chairmen are former Presidents George Bush, Gerald R. Ford, and Jimmy Carter,and its Co-Chairmen are former Governor Robert D. Ray (R-IA) and former Congressman Paul G. Rogers (D-FL). Its President is Henry E. Simmons, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
They say "Health care coverage for all is needed to assure quality of care, to improve the health status of Americans, and to enable us to control costs and to simplify the system. It is an essential social policy goal."
Campaign for a National Health Program Now!
A large group working together with Physicians for a National Health Program, major labor unions and the faith-based community, in support of National Health Insurance Bill HR 676 www.cnhpnow.org
Summary of National Health Insurance Bill HR 676
www.cnhpnow.org/hr676.html
Code Blue Now
A national grassroots education and advocacy group committed to positive change in the U.S. health care system.
www.codebluenow.org
CoverTheUninsuredWeek
www.covertheuninsuredweek.org
2004 Honorary Co-Chairs: Former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter
Everybody In, Nobody Out
www.everybodyinnobodyout.org
Americans for Health Care
www.americansforhealthcare.com/plugin/template/afhc/170/*Get the Facts - See the charts
www.americansforhealthcare.com/plugin/template/afhc/171/*
2004 Presidential Candidates Health Care Plans: Only Dennis Kucinich calls for Universal Health Care with a Single Payer Plan but virtually all the candidates have a Health Care Reform on their Agenda
www.americansforhealthcare.com/plugin/template/afhc/*/9199Healthcare Reform A Woman's Issue
www.ourbodiesourselves.org/reform.htm
National Healthcare Reform Meetup Day
http://healthcare.meetup.com
LABOR ADVOCATES
The United Steel Workers of America
www.uswa.org/uswa/program/content/overview_sub.php?modules2_ID=142&modules_ ID=142
AFL-CIO
What's wrong with our system and how to fix it:
www.aflcio.org/familyfunresources/healthcarehelp/curing/fix.cfm
What the drug companies aren't telling you:
www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/magazine/0503_bigfix.cfm
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
www.goiam.org/politics.asp?n=2&c=853
United Food and Commercial Workers | AFL-CIO
Across the country, from Southern California to West Virginia, and Ohio, almost 75,000 supermarket workers are on strike, fighting to save affordable health care for their families and all of America's workers.
www.ufcw.org/hold_the_line
FAITH ADVOCATES
The United Methodist Church
www.umc-gbcs.org/getinvolved/viewarticle.php?csa_articleId=85
Episcopalians advocate for better healthcare system
http://arc.episcopalchurch.org/ens/2003-081.html
National Council of Churches: Universal Health Care Campaign
www.ncccusa.org/about/u2kres.html
"If criminals have a right to a lawyer,
working Americans should have a right to a doctor."
-- Senator Harris Wofford (D-Pennsylvania, 1991)
-- Senator Harris Wofford (D-Pennsylvania, 1991)
