[Vision2020] Examples Debunk Health Care Myths

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Hi Tom and Keely,

I busted all of these myths in a column "America's Health Care: A National Disgrace and an International Embarrassment," which I posted right here in January, 2007.  It can be read at www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/health.htm

I'm afraid our health care will be at the bottom of the industrialized world for years to come.

Nick
 
---- keely emerinemix <kjajmix1 at msn.com> wrote: 
> 
> Thanks, Tom, for this valuable and important information.  
> 
> Universal care NOW!!!!
> 
> Keely
> www.keely-prevailingwinds.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 13:21:02 -0800
> > From: thansen at moscow.com
> > To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> > Subject: [Vision2020] Examples Debunk Health Care Myths
> > 
> > Courtesy of today's (March 7, 2010) Spokesman-Review and Trudy Rubin.
> > 
> > --------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > Examples debunk health care myths
> > Trudy Rubin, The Spokesman-Review
> > 
> > One of the most bewildering aspects of the current health care debate is
> > the failure to learn key lessons from health systems abroad.
> > 
> > Conservative talk show hosts decry the alleged evils of “socialized
> > medicine” in countries with universal health coverage; they warn grimly of
> > rationed health care. Yet there’s nary a peep from Rush Limbaugh or Glenn
> > Beck – let alone Congress – about countries such as Germany, France,
> > Switzerland, or Japan, where coverage is universal, affordable, and top
> > quality, and patients see private doctors with little or no waiting.
> > 
> > And, oh yes, their health costs are a fraction of our bloated numbers: The
> > French spend 10 percent of GDP on health care, the Germans 11 percent, and
> > they cover every citizen. We spend a whopping 17 percent and leave tens of
> > millions of Americans uninsured.
> > 
> > If you want a very readable short course how European systems really work,
> > take a look at “The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better,
> > Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care,” by T.R. Reid, a former Washington Post
> > foreign correspondent. You might also watch a fascinating 2008 “Frontline”
> > series, available online, in which Reid was an adviser: “Sick Around the
> > World: Can the U.S. Learn Anything From the Rest of the World About How to
> > Run a Health Care System?”
> > 
> > So far, the answer seems to be “No,” not because there aren’t valuable
> > lessons, but because politicians won’t relinquish their myths about
> > European health systems. Reid takes up that task.
> > 
> > Myth No. 1, he says, is that foreign systems with universal coverage are
> > all “socialized medicine.” In countries such as France, Germany,
> > Switzerland and Japan, the coverage is universal while doctors and
> > insurers are private. Individuals get their insurance through their
> > workplace, sharing the premium with their employer as we do – and the
> > government picks up the premium if they lose their job.
> > 
> > Myth No. 2, “long waits and rationed care,” is another whopper. “In many
> > developed countries,” Reid writes, “people have quicker access to care and
> > more choice than Americans do.” In France, Germany and Japan, you can pick
> > any provider or hospital in the country. Care is speedy and high quality,
> > and no one is turned down.
> > 
> > Myth No. 3 really grabs my attention: the delusion that countries with
> > universal care “are wasteful systems run by bloated bureaucracies.” In
> > fact, the opposite is true.
> > 
> > America’s for-profit health insurance companies have the highest
> > administrative costs of any developed country. Twenty percent or more of
> > every premium dollar goes to nonmedical costs: paperwork, marketing,
> > profits, etc. In developed countries with universal coverage, such as
> > France and Germany, the administrative costs average about 5 percent.
> > That’s because every developed country but ours has decided health
> > insurance should be a nonprofit operation. (We once thought that, too,
> > until private insurance companies began buying up nonprofit health
> > insurers like Blue Cross and Blue Shield and converting them into
> > profit-makers.) In France and Germany, health insurance is sold by private
> > insurers, who can only charge fixed rates in the nonprofit health field
> > but can sell other forms of insurance for a profit.
> > 
> > These countries also hold down costs by making coverage mandatory and by
> > using a unified set of rules and payment schedules for all hospitals and
> > doctors. This does not mean a single-payer system or a government-run
> > health system. But it does sharply cut health costs by eliminating the
> > mishmash of records and charges used by our myriad insurance firms, who
> > use all kinds of gimmicks to shift their costs. A unified system makes it
> > possible for France and Germany to use digital records; every insured
> > person has a smart card that includes all his or her health information,
> > further cutting the number of bureaucrats. U.S. companies oppose such
> > efficiencies, Reid says, “because they spend money on proprietary systems
> > and no one wants to get together on a common system.” Can we afford this
> > stubbornness?
> > 
> > For those who think we could never make the switch to such systems, take
> > note that Switzerland shifted from private health insurers to nonprofits
> > in 1994. None of these European plans have to be adopted wholesale.
> > 
> > Yet there’s no sign we’re even examining them for useful lessons. Some
> > U.S. senators on the Finance Committee bought Reid’s book, but have you
> > heard anyone talk about European health systems? Of course not. It’s
> > easier to embrace our myths and pretend Americans know best about managing
> > health care. But that’s the biggest myth of them all.
> > 
> > --------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > Seeya round town, Moscow.
> > 
> > Tom Hansen
> > Moscow, Idaho
> > 
> > "The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
> > and the Realist adjusts his sails."
> > 
> > - Unknown
> > 
> > 
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