I am a business transactions lawyer, not a health care expert, although I do have two years of post-graduate training in health economics as a National Institutes of Health Fellow at U.C. Berkeley. I also have deep personal experience in the health care system. My wife, an insulin-dependent diabetic from the age of 11, would probably not be alive today but for the tremendous technology and resources available in our current system. She owes her current health status to the over-the-top efforts of her endocrinologist who, by the way, is now with Qliance Medical Group, the group mentioned by Goldhill in his Atlantic Monthly article as an example of the new concierge-style practices that operate outside of the insurance system.
My posts to Soundpolitics.com will mostly be about health care. I believe there is little hope for improving our current system until the public at large comes to the realization that, no matter what system of financing is used, our health care expenses eventually come from our own pockets, and that the best system will make us face health cost and benefit decisions squarely with our personal doctors at the point we receive health care services.
But without the framework of an exchange and without the expectation of universal coverage, you cannot end that system and you cannot expect people to have skin in the game.
Posted by: John Jensen on September 17, 2009 12:46 PMOh, wait.
Posted by: demo kid on September 17, 2009 08:19 PMSilly union educated Demo Kid, insulin wasn't invented, it was DISCOVERED.
You can thank our superior medical system for:
MRI
Cat Scans
Polio Vaccine
Cortisone
Anesthesia
Discoveries in the role of chromosomes in heredity
Discovery of DNA
to name just a few
Like the president, John? How about any public option be across the board? That way, the politicians pushing for a "public option" actually have some skin in the game. Short of that, they're just encouraging us to get in a system they've eschewed for themselves and their families, and where I come from, that's called a "hypocrite". Besides, why overhaul a system that 80% of Americans are happy with? Reform may be necessary, but it shouldn't include dumping those currently happy with their employer-based coverage into an inferior and low quality of care gub'mint system.
The president was asked by a physician if he would place in family in the 'public option' and like the unctuous, snake oil salesman he is, Obama avoided the question altogether and instead rambled on about his grandma. Video can be seen here. Until you get some skin in the game, Mr. President, Talk to the hand.
Posted by: Rick D. on September 18, 2009 05:59 AMWith respect to the rest, not all of those were exclusively American inventions. MRIs and CAT scans, for example, were pioneered in Britain as well as the United States. All those inventions, though, have much, MUCH more to do with public funding of universities and medical research than the insurance that people have.
Posted by: demo kid on September 18, 2009 11:19 AM