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Print"Health, Money and Fear" Are Big 3 Reasons to Move to Single-Payer [documentary]
News Type: Opinion — Sun Apr 5, 2009 3:10 PM EDT
"Health, Money and Fear" lists the symptoms of our ailing health care system and writes a prescription for tough medicine.
Photo by [Flickr User]. (License: Creative Commons Attribution)
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A documentary made by an emergency room physician would seem have an edge at giving viewers an up-close look at the pressures faced by doctors from insurance and drug companies. And this film, titled Health, Money and Fear by Dr. Paul Hochfeld is an intelligent and incisive analysis of the myriad problems facing the healthcare industry in the United States.
The documentary is ninety minutes of well-done analysis and interviews with physicians and other health care professionals about the reasons why healthcare costs are out of control. The list includes:
- Insurance and Administrative Expenses: Processing costs eat up too many healthcare dollars and are inefficient.
- Malpractice Issues: Fear of being sued leads most doctors to order unnecessary tests just to cover themselves.
- Medical Records Chaos: Paper records are prone to errors and are not shared in a timely fashion with emergency or other providers.
- Pharmacy Costs: Pharmaceutical companies claim that drug prices are high because they need to recoup research expenses, yet marketing expenditures are twice what is spent on research.
- End of Life Care: If an elderly person develops a grave illness like a brain tumor, should we spend a half million to a million dollars on surgery and therapy, or just make them comfortable?
- Primary Care Crisis: The lack of new doctors going into primary care means that no one is encouraging positive lifestyle changes that could keep symptoms from becoming chronic diseases.
And the completely rational proposals to solve each of these problems are:
- Adopt a Single-Payer Health Plan
- Liability Reform
- Electronic Medical Records
- Disallow Mass Marketing of Prescription Drugs
- Public Education
- Funding of Primary Care
Stay tuned to the end of the DVD where the single-payer plan is compared to a Prom Committee that can negotiate better prices, and more efficiently, than many payers each trying to contract for different services from a plethora of providers.
More information on the Single-Payer plan is available online at: Health Care Meltdown by Bob Lebow from Amazon.com, Single-Payer FAQ from pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php, and Campaign for a National Health Program at cnhpnow.org.
The 48-minute DVD, Health, Money and Fear is by Dr. Paul Hochfeld and produced by Dr. Graham Walker. It is dated February 2009. Dr. Hochfeld can be reached at phochfeld @ msn.com. More information is available at ourailinghealthcare.com.
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8.9
{"commentId":6328982,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}
Do you know that doctors get a periodic report that rates them on RVU's per hour -- this is a measure of how many units of billable activity they produce (i.e. how many tests they order or surgeries they order, etc). They are chided if they are not sending patients on for highly profitable tests or surgeries!
Another issue, and one that needs a separate film or book, is how new drugs only need to prove one thing in order to be approved by the FDA -- they have to show that they are safe and effective but only in comparison to a sugar pill (placebo)!
{"commentId":6328982,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}
- 4 votes
#1 - Sun Apr 5, 2009 3:33 PM EDT{"commentId":6331415,"authorDomain":"HensTeeth"}
And we get doctors more interested in moving on to the next patient, than treating the one they are talking to.
{"commentId":6331415,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"HensTeeth"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":6340996,"authorDomain":"po-poet"}
FDA -- they have to show that they are safe and effective but only in comparison to a sugar pill (placebo)!
Yeah thats why we have the market saturated with me too drugs instead of novel more effective therapies
we get doctors more interested in moving on to the next patient,
Not our faults when your insurance company wont pay for a 30min encounter. It forces the doctor to choose between livelihood and ideal care. I much rather spend 30mins with a patient at follow up but most HMO's will only pay for 15.
{"commentId":6340996,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"po-poet"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":6348852,"authorDomain":"HensTeeth"}
Yes, it's a lousy system we have when doctors aren't allowed to take the time to treat patients.
{"commentId":6348852,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"HensTeeth"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":6353385,"authorDomain":"po-poet"}
I agree, but it just gets to me when the public sentiment is that doctors want it to be that way.
{"commentId":6353385,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"po-poet"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":6329506,"authorDomain":"mightyblogger"}
A bit off topic but related
So many free-market politicians complain about the entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid. They complain about how it's going to be more than the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). They cry foul about single-payer systems or intervention in the health insurance market.
Yet, none of them are willing to look at a simple fact:
We could have paid for health care for every person living in this country if we simply didn't go into Iraq. Politician's favor death more than health and well being.
If this country's leaders can choose to fight a preemptive war, it can choose to make health care work for every American!
The health care debacle can be solved, is must be solved. Businesses need it to be solved. People need it to be solved.
Any time you hear a politician say we can't, see if they voted for the wars and ask them to vote for you instead...
{"commentId":6329506,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"mightyblogger"}
- 8 votes
#2 - Sun Apr 5, 2009 4:21 PM EDT{"commentId":6331720,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
Good review and summation of the problems herein our system. Where is he a doctor at?
{"commentId":6331720,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
- 5 votes
#3 - Sun Apr 5, 2009 7:58 PM EDT{"commentId":6332155,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}
{"commentId":6367478,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}
Thanks
{"commentId":6367478,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"sbutki"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":6344295,"authorDomain":"timmullinspoundva-1"}
In America, Profit Care comes before Patient Care ! www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62
{"commentId":6344295,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"timmullinspoundva-1"}
- 2 votes
#4 - Mon Apr 6, 2009 5:13 PM EDT{"commentId":6344399,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}
{"commentId":6351364,"authorDomain":"PANeal"}
Excellent summary of the issues, which are many and complex. I think disallowing mass marketing of prescription drugs is very needed. The only thing I see missing is the tie to better diets and finding incentives for healthier food alternatives. I guess that would be covered under better education and more emphasis on primary care.
{"commentId":6351364,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"PANeal"}
- 3 votes
#5 - Tue Apr 7, 2009 8:49 AM EDT{"commentId":6353840,"authorDomain":"HensTeeth"}
I think disallowing mass marketing of prescription drugs is very needed.
I wish more people would stop complaining about the content of movies & do something about the content of commercials. You can choose not to watch a movie, but those ads are everywhere.
{"commentId":6353840,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"HensTeeth"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":6367150,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}
{"commentId":6369568,"authorDomain":"elianmaricon"}
That is much too rational and logical. You forget how collectively delusional we Americans are. I'm surprised we allow the government to run the Postal Service. All it would take is for one right-wing politician to start screaming "socialism" and the postal service would be owned by Monsanto within a week. We are TERRIFIED by that "s" word.
{"commentId":6369568,"threadId":"546731","contentId":"2644190","authorDomain":"elianmaricon"}
- 6 votes
#6 - Wed Apr 8, 2009 12:35 AM EDT{"commentId":6387602,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}
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