The Facts On Healthcare

[Nbadan]

Spin: The U.S. has the most affordable, efficient health-care system in the world...people from Canada are coming over droves with their state-issued food-coupons because they can't get health-care in Canada.....


Fact:

This 2007 survey compares adults’ health care experiences in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In all countries, the study finds that having a "medical home" that is accessible and helps coordinate care is associated with significantly more positive experiences. There were wide country differences in access, after-hours care, and coordination but also areas of shared concern. Patient-reported errors were high for those seeing multiple doctors or having multiple chronic illnesses. The United States stands out for cost-related access barriers and less-efficient care.



Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD

Nothing new. This is yet another international study of health care experiences demonstrating that the United States has the most expensive and least efficient system and that we have the most negative views of all the nations studied. We have a lousy system, and we don’t like it.

The U.S. opponents of reform continue to expound on how we have the greatest health care system in the world, and none of us would ever tolerate the government controlled systems of other nations. But the truth is that their systems are less expensive, more efficient, and more appreciated by their citizens.

The first step in reform is to accept the true facts as they are. The second step is to find enough money to pay for a high-performance health care system. Fortunately, we’ve already accomplished that step since we’re currently spending enough; we merely need to make the contributions more equitable. The next step is to establish a rational system of allocating those funds, beginning with the establishment of a medical home for each and every individual residing in the United States.

With the funds we already have, a high-performance system is only a few policy steps away.

Link

[Nbadan]

$20K for being a heartless ....

One of the state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.

Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, do ents disclosed Thursday showed.

The revelation that the health plan had cancellation goals and bonuses comes amid a storm of controversy over the industry-wide but long-hidden practice of rescinding coverage after expensive medical treatments have been authorized.

These cancellations have been the recent focus of intense scrutiny by lawmakers, state regulators and consumer advocates. Although these "rescissions" are only a small portion of the companies' overall business, they typically leave sick patients with crushing medical bills and no way to obtain needed treatment.

LA Times

Welcome to American-style health-care, where making a buck is more important to insurers than treating sick people....