Reform begins in the mind.
Introduction to Triggerband : Meet the Manager : List of Journal Articles
This article is filled with compelling logic and statistics that support including a public option in healthcare reform. The following quote has beautiful logic:
"If the private sector is truly the efficient solution to our costly, wasteful and unfair health care system, then why are [private insurers] so frightened of a public plan?"
Joe Conason (June 11 2009). Why So Scared of a Public Plan? Creators Syndicate Inc.
"Social Security is a tiny problem, as these things go.
Medicare is entirely different. It's a monster. But fixing it has everything to do with slowing the rate of growth of medical costs -- including, let's not forget, having a public option when it comes to choosing insurance plans under the emerging universal health insurance bill. With a public option, the government can use its bargaining power with drug companies and suppliers of medical services to reduce prices. And, as I've noted, keep pressure on private insurers to trim costs yet provide effective medical outcomes.
Don't be confused by these alarms from the Social Security and Medicare trustees. Social Security is a tiny problem. Medicare is a terrible one, but the problem is not really Medicare; it's quickly rising health-care costs. Look more closely and the real problem isn't even health-care costs; it's a system that pushes up costs by rewarding inefficiency, causing unbelievable waste, pushing over-medication, providing inadequate prevention, over-using emergency rooms because many uninsured people can't afford regular doctor checkups, and spending billions on advertising and marketing seeking to enroll healthy people and avoid sick ones."
Robert Reich (May 13 2009). The truth about Social Security and Medicare, Salon.com.
"[T]he health care industry surprised many who follow reform efforts this week by offering to put the brakes on health care costs over the next few years. The projected monetary impact: $2 trillion in savings over the next decade. . . .
$2 trillion represents only about 1.5 percent of the health care spending growth rate in the coming 10 years."
(May 12 2009) Health Care Reform, Realized? Industry cooperation could be an important step in the right direction, MSN Health & Fitness.
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"Make no mistake — we are determined to reform healthcare this year."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Quoted in The Hill by Jeffrey Young (April 27 2009). Healthcare fight begins.
"In the budget blueprint for the coming year, Democrats may resort to an obscure procedure known as reconciliation to clear the way for Senate passage of a comprehensive health bill with a 51-vote majority, rather than the 60 votes that would otherwise be needed.
. . . .
A health care bill written mainly or entirely by Democrats would almost surely create a new public health insurance program, to compete with private insurers."
Robert Pear (April 22 2009). Democrats Consider Bypassing G.O.P. on Health Care Plan, The New York Times.
"'There's an overwhelming desire to fundamentally change the system, not only from the public but also from doctors, employers, insurers, everybody,' he said. 'Of course, different people want to see different things. But very few people think that the system as we have it now is even close to what we ought to have.'"
E. J. Mundell (February 11 2009). Poll Shows Strong Support for Obama Health Care Reforms, US News and World Report.
"[T]o reform healthcare we must also reform medicine."
The Core of Healthcare, Triggerband Web Journal.
"Where fact and theory are incompatible, it is theory, not fact, that needs to be amended."
P. Wahlberg; Asvägen Mariehamn, Aland. Nord Med. 1993;108(5):157-8. PubMed
"One of the lessons I've learned from the practice of medicine is the danger of treating symptoms rather than the disease. Doing so makes the disease worse and causes the symptoms to come back with a vengeance."
— Tom Coburn, M.D., United States Senator from Oklahoma (February 3 2009)
Whatever your political persuasions, know that there are many people who are dissatisfied with healthcare in the United States, and are determined to reform the system:
"The core of the [stimulus] bill is $117bn in healthcare spending, which Republicans correctly see as a way of enacting, under false pretences, the national health plan that Democrats have lacked the mandate to legislate in non-emergency times."
Caldwell, Christopher (January 30 2009). Is the stimulus Obama's Iraq? Financial Times, published online in London.
"What we try to do is really reach down into the souls of people and say, 'You have the ability to solve the problems,'" Diamandis said, his voice rising. "It doesn't take the government, it doesn't take a large corporation. In fact, most brilliant solutions to problems come from the mind of an individual.
"We believe there's a new model. It's putting out a clear set of rules and a large cash challenge and saying, 'We don't care where you are, where you're from, where you've gone to school, whatever you've done before—you solve this problem, you win.'"
It is a seductive notion—especially in this era of overextended government and corporate cutbacks—and one that is gaining traction in philanthropic circles and the research establishment.
Mandelbaum, Robb (February 2009). The X Factor. Discover, 52.