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6055. jexster - 4/1/2004 2:20:05 AM U.S. employers and ultimately consumers of US produced goods and services, unlike many of their foreign competitors, bear the burden of financing employee health care. The relatively high cost of care place this country=s businesses at a distinct competitive disadvantage. In addition, the more we spend on health care, the less of our national income will be available to spend on other items such as education, defense, and infrastructure among other things. In addition, as costs continue to outpace GDP growth, state, local and federal governments, which today account for 46% of all health care expenditure will have to increase taxes and/or reduce other services just to keep pace. Finally, as costs increase, insurance coverage will be reduced for and access denied to ever larger numbers of Americansr. As a consequence, the numbers of uninsured, some 42.6 million in 2002 (Pear, 9/03) can be expected to increase unless costs are contained.
6056. jexster - 4/1/2004 2:20:28 AM 3. Health Care Cost FAQ - Sure we spend more but don=t we get what we pay for?
When it comes to health care, it does not seem to be the case that US gets a reasonable return on investment. In fact, we spend more but receive less access and experience worse health outcomes than many nations. Our infant mortality ranks 25th out of 29 countries according to a 1996 OECD study (Barr p.10). In fact the only measure of health in which US outcomes match U.S. expenditure is in the life expectancy of persons over 80 (Barr, p12.). Actually there appears to be little relation between how much a country spends on health care and the overall health of its population. 6057. jexster - 4/1/2004 2:20:56 AM Factors such as per capita income and education (Barr p.13); the amount of out-of-pocket expense a patient must bear (Barr p 207); racial bias (Barr pp. 209-210); location (p. 216) as well as the increasing organizational complexity and increasing impersonal treatment in our current managed care delivery environment (Barr, pp. 216-218), all have a more direct bearing on overall health than simply national expenditure.
6058. jexster - 4/1/2004 2:21:04 AM 2. The Dynamic of the US Health Care Cost Crisis
1. Overview
At the outset it is important to note that rising health care costs and cost containment are significant policy issues in all developed nations. Over the century, there has been a remarkable growth in medical technologies which has been accompanied by increased life expectancies in all developed nations(Barr.p14), especially since World War II (Anderson pp. 39-40), and especially in the most prominent of the developed countries, namely the US where our fascination with technological advances has been a major driving factor in health care cost (Barr pp.29-34). Nonetheless, when discussing issues of and cost containment it is important to appreciate that the US system of health care delivery is rather unique among developed countries.
2. Historical Cultural Factors
Nonetheless, the system of health care delivery and finance in the U.S. is unique among developed nations, and part of the reason for this can be attributed to historical cultural factors. The very organizing principles on which the political economy of this country rests - libertarianism, populism, distrust of the state (Barr p.17). As a consequence, four distinct principles of health care social policy can be identified: 1) Health care is a market commodity; 2) Power over the organization and delivery of care has been historically concentrated in a private largely self regulating medical profession; 3) there is no uniform standard of care in a system in quality and access depend on the ability to pay, and 4) government has historically played a quite limited role in health policy relative at least to other developed countries (Barr pp.26-28).
6059. jexster - 4/1/2004 2:21:26 AM All me BTW....no cut no paste..just me...note the typos! 6060. PelleNilsson - 4/1/2004 2:52:16 AM So why the italics? 6061. robertjayb - 4/1/2004 3:36:35 AM Frist tends family business...(John Nichols, WI CapTimes)
Last week, Senator Bill Frist took to the floor to denounce Richard Clarke. "Mr. Clarke makes the outrageous charge that the Bush administration, in its first seven months in office, failed to adequately address the threat posed by Osama bin Laden," Frist griped. "I am troubled by these charges. I am equally troubled that someone would sell a book, trading on their former service as a government insider with access to our nation's most valuable intelligence, in order to profit from the suffering that this nation endured on Sept. 11, 2001."
That was rich coming from Frist, whose Senate service has been all about profiting from the suffering of the nation. By blocking needed health care reforms, pushing tort reforms that would limit malpractice payouts and supporting moves to privatize Medicare, Frist has pumped up his family's fortunes at the expense of Americans who lack health care.
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Frist has delivered well for his family. That $800 million stake in HCA that his father and brother had when Frist was elected in 1994 shot up in value over the decade that followed. In 2003, Forbes estimated that Frist's brother, Thomas Frist Jr., was worth $1.5 billion. According to Forbes: "source: health care."
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6062. jexster - 4/1/2004 3:55:52 AM No need...want the rest?
Email me for access to SFSU library electronic reserve
And be careful Swede of who you fuck with.
Title Format # of Pages Size
California's Propostition 186: Lessons from a Single-Payer Health Care Reform Ballot Initiative Campaign (Farey, K.) pdf 11 543 KB
Comparing Health System Performance on OECD Countries (Anderson, G.) pdf 14 485 KB
End of an Era: What Became of the "Managed Care Revolution" in 2001? (Lesser, C.) pdf 19 659 KB
Health Care for All - California Folder - -
Health Services in the United States: A Growth Enterprise for a Hundred Years (Anderson, O.) pdf 15 705 KB
Health Spending Rebound Continues in 2002 (Levit, K.) pdf 13 531 KB
Hospital Haves Prosper, Have-Nots Cut (Thomas, S.) pdf 5 201 KB
Instructor's Web Page Link - -
Methods Used by European Countries to Obtain Reasonable Drug Prices for Consumers (Huttin, C.) pdf 1 35 KB
Prescription Drug Coverage for Medicare Beneficiaries: A Summary of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 pdf 12 416 KB
Proposal for the Physicians' Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance (Woolhander, S.) pdf 11 612 KB
Rise and Resounding Demise of the Clinton Plan (Skocpol, T.) pdf 21 1006 KB
Side-by-Side Summary of Presidential Candidates' Proposals for Expanding Health Insurance Coverage pdf 5 206 KB
The Health Insurance Act of 2003: An Overview of SB 2 pdf 3 96 KB
Understanding the New Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit pdf 4 139 KB
Universal Health Care Action Network
6063. wonkers2 - 4/1/2004 9:57:17 AM Frist and family are parasites on the populace. 6064. wonkers2 - 4/1/2004 10:20:22 AM Wasn't one of Frist's hospitals in California exposed on 60 Minutes for performing hundreds of completely unnecessary heart surgeries? They were practically dragging the streets for candidates. Here in Detroit a local for profit lasik/cataract surgery clinic cleaned up for years by trolling nursing homes for candidates for unnecessary surgery. They were running a bus service to all the local nursing homes and herding them in. That's the nasty underbelly of free enterprise. 6065. robertjayb - 4/4/2004 8:11:06 AM Show-me-the-money health care...
RENTON, Wash. -- When Chuck O'Brien visits his doctor, they talk about his aches and pains, his heart problems and his diet, but never about his health insurance. That's because Dr. Vern Cherewatenko is one of a small but growing number of physicians across the country who are dumping complicated insurance contracts in favor of cash.
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When O'Brien leaves the exam room, he writes a check for $50 and he's done -- no forms, no ID numbers, no copayments.
"This is traditional medicine. This is what America was like 30 years ago," said O'Brien, 55 and self-employed, who believes he has saved thousands of dollars by dropping his expensive insurance policy and paying cash. "It's a whole world of difference."
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6066. judithathome - 4/12/2004 12:13:39 AM Faulty Gene For Crohn's Disease Found
Canadian researchers have isolated a gene that predisposes people to Crohn's disease, a painful disorder that strikes young people and that has sharply increased in frequency in recent years.
The discovery will have an immediate impact, allowing researchers to distinguish more readily between Crohn's and colitis, both inflammatory bowel diseases.
"The diagnostic benefits will be immediate," said Katherine Siminovitch, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. "That's important because you really want to catch these diseases in the early stages . . . then you can start a therapy that might put patients in remission and even eradicate the disease."
6067. concerned - 4/12/2004 12:40:24 AM Anomie,
With the old white men running the country right now that are each worth in the tens of millions that are so out of touch, I don't see anything positive coming anytime soon.
And how is Kerry not all of the above, except that he's supposedly worth hundreds of millions? 6068. concerned - 4/12/2004 12:41:13 AM 'We don't like old rich white men, so we'll vote an even older, richer and whiter man in for president.'
What kind of sense does that make? 6069. judithathome - 4/12/2004 1:29:13 AM Perfect. 6070. judithathome - 4/12/2004 5:19:48 AM I have just been stunned by a statement from my insurance company. That little electronic gizmo that helped my leg to start healing agian cost $4,678.00!
I guess it is cheaper than surgery but still, that seems extremely costly. 6071. seadate - 4/12/2004 7:03:25 AM Concerned,
Re: Old White Men
It was I who made the reference. Unlike yourself, I have no tribalistic ties to either political party. Yes, Kerry is also one of them ... with his ties, don't count on ketchup to lose market share to mustard if he wins.
6072. seadate - 4/12/2004 7:13:06 AM Concerned,
And to answer your question, Kerry offers a regime change. 6073. anomie - 4/12/2004 9:37:36 AM 6067 is not me.
Concerned, I think you meant to reference someone else.
I am for regime change, however. 6074. anomie - 4/12/2004 9:39:21 AM I am an old white man myself. Sort of off-white, really.
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