Health Care
House Republican Press Conference on Health Care Reform House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
House GOP Offers Better Health Care Solutions: healthcare.gop.gov
The American people have spoken. Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have ignored them. Through the month of August, the American people let Members of Congress from both parties know that they didn’t want a government takeover of health care. That hasn’t changed.
But instead of listening to the American people, Democrats hid behind closed doors and came back with a bill designed to appease the liberal special interests. Three things about Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill are already clear: it will raise the cost of Americans’ health insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates; and it will cut seniors’ Medicare benefits. The fact that it weighs in at nearly 2,000 pages – more than 620 pages longer than the government takeover of health care Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993 – is as good an indication as any of just how costly and unsustainable Speaker Pelosi’s proposal is.
Research on Health Care System of Australia
Article by latest-health-articles.com
Health care issue is a worldwide problem, one of the most controversial and the most sensitive topics in the political life of countries. It can not be avoided by any government.
Now it has also become the focus of attention from all walks in China. Since reform and opening up, with the advance of the market economic system, the improvement of people’s standard of living, and the progress of technology and society, the medical field gradually highlights contradictions, and accompanying by an unprecedented number of new problems have arisen, the problems have become increasingly prominent, severely affected the people’s health and even on social harmony and stability. China’s medical reform had continued more than 20 years. However, because of the complexity of the problem itself and the restrictions on China’s national conditions it had not been able to achieve a major breakthrough. In the 21st we have not only to expand health care coverage, improve the quality of medical services and control health care costs such as the basic health care issues, but also to deal with the development of medical and information technology, and the challenges brought about by the aging. This makes medical reform in China face more complicated situation, higher requirements and then it is necessary to take into account more factors.
So it becomes extremely necessary and urgent to study health care systems of other countries. The article begin with the history of Australian health-care system, a comprehensive introduction to Australian health-care system in its infancy, establishment, development and reform, then analyze operational mechanism and constituent elements of the health care system in Australia. Based on the inquiry, the article brings to light the fundamental laws and inherent logic governing the formation and development of Australian health-care system. It also analyses the nature and the problems and challenges faced by Australian health-care system. Finally, it puts forward several proposals concerning the enlightenment we can gain from the experience of Australia when we improve our medical care system.
The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care
health care – click on the image below for more information.
- ISBN13: 9780143118213
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
health care
Important and powerful…a rich tour of health care around the world.”
-Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
How is it that all other industrialized democracies provide health care for their citizens as a reasonable cost-something the United States has never managed to do? In The Healing of America, New York Times bestselling author T.S. Reid shows how they do it, bringing to bear his talent for explaining complex issues in a clear, engaging way. In his global quest to find a pre
The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care
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Thomas, Kagan asked to sit out health care case
health care
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative interest groups and Republican lawmakers want Justice Elena Kagan off the health care case. Liberals and Democrats in Congress say it's Justice Clarence Thomas who should sit it out. Neither justice is budging — the …
Health Care
House Republican Press Conference on Health Care Reform
House GOP Offers Better Health Care Solutions: healthcare.gop.gov
The American people have spoken. Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have ignored them. Through the month of August, the American people let Members of Congress from both parties know that they didn’t want a government takeover of health care. That hasn’t changed.
But instead of listening to the American people, Democrats hid behind closed doors and came back with a bill designed to appease the liberal special interests. Three things about Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill are already clear: it will raise the cost of Americans’ health insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates; and it will cut seniors’ Medicare benefits. The fact that it weighs in at nearly 2,000 pages – more than 620 pages longer than the government takeover of health care Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993 – is as good an indication as any of just how costly and unsustainable Speaker Pelosi’s proposal is.
Verbatim: Diverse Voices Address Small-Biz Need for Health Care Reform
Article by Kari Larson
As often as possible, GoodBiz113 presents diverse perspectives on small business and entrepreneurship from those who help shape policies and practices that impact us. Here’s what some folks have been saying these past couple of weeks about the hot-button subject of health care reform…
“Health care expenditures in the United States are currently about 18 percent of GDP, and this share is projected to rise sharply. If health care costs continue to grow at historical rates, the share of GDP devoted to health care in the United States is projected to reach 34 percent by 2040. For households with employer-sponsored health insurance, this trend implies that a progressively smaller fraction of their total compensation will be in the form of take-home pay and a progressively larger fraction will take the form of employer-provided health insurance.
“The rising share of health expenditures also has dire implications for government budgets. Almost half of current health care spending is covered by Federal, state, and local governments. If health care costs continue to grow at historical rates, Medicare and Medicaid spending [both federal and state] will rise to nearly 15 percent of GDP in 2040. Of this increase, roughly one-quarter is estimated to be due to the aging of the population and other demographic effects, and three-quarters is due to rising health care costs.
“Perhaps the most visible sign of the need for health care reform is the 46 million Americans currently without health insurance. CEA projections suggest that this number will rise to about 72 million in 2040 in the absence of reform. A key factor driving this trend is the tendency of small firms not to provide coverage due to the rising cost of health care.” — Council of Economic Advisers [CEA], chaired by Christina Romer [pictured], “The Economic Case for Health Care Reform” [June 2, Executive Office of the President]
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“Nobody supports the status quo. We absolutely have to have reform… If this thing gets derailed, it’s going to be bad for everybody.” — James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, noting that a government plan wouldn’t be needed if insurance market reforms, such as prohibiting insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, were enacted. He hopes the larger goal of health care reform — lowering costs so more people can afford coverage — doesn’t get lost in battles over public plans and employer mandates. [June 8, "Business Warily Awaits Health Care Reform," Washington Business Journal]
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“…At the individual level, the average American spends about ,900 per year on health care. Despite that huge outlay, a recent study found that medical problems contributed to 62 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007. From a business perspective, General Motors spends more on health care per automobile than on steel while small-business owners are forced to divert hard-earned profits into health coverage for their employees — rather than new business investments. And, because of rising costs, many businesses are cutting back drastically on their level of health care coverage or are doing away with it entirely…” — Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-Vt., pictured], “Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege” [June 9, The Huffington Post]
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“It’s not tax supported like Medicare; it will be financed by premiums just like regular insurance, except for people who can’t afford it. If you have coverage that works, you continue to have coverage that works. The only change will be now the coverage will have to be good. The other change is that your company will be required to provide good coverage or help pay for it. So, for most Americans, nothing’s going to change. But for people who don’t get coverage that works — the self-employed, people with several part-time jobs, small business — they will be able to go into a new health insurance marketplace called the Exchange, a national public insurance company financed by premiums. Unless they make below a certain level, four times poverty, and then they’ll be subsidized.” — Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager, Health Care for America Now [HCAN], a national grassroots campaign of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states — representing 30 million people — dedicated to winning comprehensive, quality, affordable health care that we can all count on in 2009. [June 9, "What's the Deal With Obama's Public Health-Care Plan?" Esquire]
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“…The cost of health care has helped leave big corporations like GM and Chrysler at a competitive disadvantage with their foreign counterparts. For small businesses, it’s even worse. One month, they’re forced to cut back on health care benefits. The next month, they’ve got to drop coverage. The month after that, they have no choice but to start laying off workers…
“I know that there are millions of Americans who are happy, who are content with their health care coverage — they like their plan, they value their relationship with their doctor. And no matter how we reform health care, I intend to keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you’ll be able to keep your doctor; if you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan.
“So don’t let people scare you. If you like what you’ve got, we’re not going to make you change. But in order to preserve what’s best about our health care system, we have to fix what doesn’t work. For we’ve reached the point where doing nothing about the cost of health care is no longer an option. The status quo is unsustainable. If we don’t act, and act soon to bring down costs, it will jeopardize everybody’s health care. If we don’t act, every American will feel the consequences in higher premiums — which, by the way, means lower take-home pay, because it’s not as if those costs are all borne by your employer; that’s money that could have gone to giving you a raise — in lost jobs and shuttered businesses, in a rising number of uninsured and a rising debt that our children and their children will be paying off for decades…” — President Barack Obama, during remarks made at a town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wis., on health care and his vision for a Health Insurance Exchange. [June 11, Executive Office of the President]
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“Small businesses in the United States are suffering great harm under our current health care system, and will likely fare far better under a substantially reformed system along the lines of what is currently being debated in Washington — as long as such a system offers appropriate levels of assistance to small businesses in meeting their health care obligations.” — Small Business Majority, a national nonprofit nonpartisan organization, founded and run by small-business owners, that brings the voice of America’s 27 million small businesses to the public-policy table. [June 11, "The Economic Impact of Healthcare Reform on Small Business"]
* * *
“A national health insurance exchange would offer an array of competing private plans and a new public health insurance plan, helping to improve coverage for 138 million currently insured individuals through more choices, better benefits, and/or more affordable premiums, which would be 20 to 30 percent lower than those now charged in the individual and small-business markets for comparable benefits and enrollees. Savings would be realized by employers and households at every income level.” — The Commonwealth Fund, who co-sponsored a report with Consumers Union, suggesting that a comprehensive and high-quality health care system can be established with a mixed public-private insurance system, a requirement for all employers to offer or contribute to coverage of their workers, and an individual coverage mandate. [June 11, "Front and Center: Ensuring That Health Reform Puts People First"]
GoodBiz113′s take: Health care is not a Democatic issue nor a Republican issue; it’s a very human issue that deserves to be remedied now. Naysayers need to put their egos and politics aside, and embrace President Obama’s far-reaching plan that provides health insurance for all Americans.
SOURCES: The Commonwealth Fund, Council of Economic Advisers, Esquire, Huffington Post, Small Business Majority, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington Business Journal, The White House, Wikipedia
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TAGS: Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Christina Romer, Commonwealth Fund, Consumers Union, Council of Economic Advisers, Esquire, Executive Office of the President, federal, government, HCAN, health care, Health Care for America Now, health insurance, Huffington Post, James Gelfand, Medicaid, Medicare, policy, PBS, reform, Richard Kirsch, ShopPBS, ShopPBS.org, small business, Small Business Majority, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington Business Journal, The White House, Wikipedia
Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know
health care – click on the image below for more information.
- ISBN13: 9780199769124
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
health care
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama in March 2010 is a landmark in U.S. social legislation. The new law extends health insurance to nearly all Americans, fulfilling a century-long quest and bringing the United States to parity with other industrial nations. Affordable Care aims to control rapidly rising health care costs and promises to make the United States more equal, reversing four decades of rising disparities between the very rich and everyone else. M
Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know
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GE Healthcare Celebrates More New 'Technologies for Healthier Lives' Than Ever …
health care
CHICAGO, Nov 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — GE Healthcare /quotes/zigman/227468/quotes/nls/ge GE -0.20% today celebrates an incredibly innovative year — with more new products and solutions than ever before — at the annual conference of the Radiological …
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Seen on your photo stream. (?)
BEST WRITTEN MOST INFORMATIVE,
I bought this book after reading Jacob Weisberg’s review in Newsweek. It is the best thing on the subject for the following reasons: 1. It is well written even funny in places. 2. It is very informative. 3. It presents comparative data both as to health outcomes and also ways of paying for health care 4. It is non-partisan, even though by the end one wonders why we Americans are paying so much for health outcomes that are actually worse than any comparable country. 5. It is revealing as to the complexity of the US; for example, I didn’t know that as many as 80 million Americans are already covered by systems nearly identical to the British or Canadian, i.e. medicaid, medicare, military, veterans and Department of Indian Affairs – who would have thought that? But 45 million others are not covered at all. Everyone else is covered, more or less, by insurance and so are the Germans, French and Japanese etc. But what a difference in the insurance systems! In the other countries you get insurance just like here EXCEPT THAT 1. you cannot be denied 2. you cannot be cancelled 3. everyone is covered and 4. your premiums are regulated by government which of course is what the entire debate is about. Because here the insurance industry is for profit and the premiums reflect that fact, the amazing fact that US health is the USA’s largest industry by far, larger that the State of California, four times larger that the military, in fact US health would be the world’s 8th largest country. No wonder the debate is so fierce. This excellent books set it all out readably and comprehensively.
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|This book should be required reading for every American,
I am a nursing student. I returned to college after 20 years in hospitality and project management in order to realize my dream of a career focused not on money but on providing care to the most vulnerable. One disturbing pattern has cropped up in my education- the emphasis (when studying the importance of avoiding potentially life threatening errors) placed more on avoiding liability than on the well-being of the patient (or “client” as we are now taught, in this money-driven society). It also strikes me that I have never heard it suggested that a health care professional should be painstaking in her work in order to prevent avoidable errors that would bring dishonor to herself or her profession. The focus is on avoiding “costly” errors.
This is where Mr. Reid’s book is a most welcome addition to the conversation on health care in America. He shows us that it is possible to have an excellent health care system that is focused on the well-being of the patient and not the all-mighty dollar. He also breaks down a complicated subject into an enjoyable reading experience, with prose that is clear and intelligent and often humorous.
I find it extremely disappointing that so many Americans blindly buy into the myths about the “poor” health care available in other rich, developed nations (every one of which, with the sole exception of the U.S., provide universal health care) while touting false grandiose statements about the superiority of American medicine.
Mr. Reid explains the reality of the better and cheaper health care systems of nations like Switzerland and Japan in terms (to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson) “so plain and firm as to command their assent.” He also introduces us to health care professionals who are driven not by monetary motives but by a desire to heal and prevent illness.
If you believe that access to health care (note, I did not say free health care) is a basic human right, then buy this book. Actually, if you are simply interested in learning the honest facts on the ground- buy this book.
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|Important voice in the health care debate,
In `The Healing of America’ TR Reid gives a tutorial on the basic types of health care systems in place around the world, and then tries to give an evenhanded analysis of what works in these systems and what doesn’t. What gives the book its teeth though is his first-hand experience of health care systems in six different countries. In his quest, Reid brings a bum shoulder to these countries to find, as he puts it, `two cures’: one for himself and one for the US health care system.
There’s no question something needs to be done to fix the US health care system. The idea that the richest and most technologically-advanced country would let people die because they can’t get the care they need or go bankrupt because they get sick is absurd. That is why the current debate about health care reform is needed. The problem though is that’s it’s hard to know what we’re looking at when filtered through politicians and the majority of the media coverage. They focus on the extremes, especially those opposed to reform who mischaracterize the systems in other countries as `socialized medicine’. In this context, Reid provides a useful voice to the debate- whether you agree with his prescriptions or not. He de-stigmatizes the systems of other countries and explains why we’re not as far removed from them as we think.
He shows us how other countries’ systems are different, but also alike. Some `socialist’ countries have private insurance and private doctors. In fact, Reid demonstrates how some countries actually have more choice than the US. In Germany for example, one can choose from hundreds of different insurance plans and go to any doctor, whereas US citizens are generally limited to one employer’s plan and only `in-network’ doctors. Some countries, like Britain, have government-run hospitals but private GPs. Some are single-payer, but most have multiple payers. Some plans are funded by private insurance, some by a government-run insurance fund, and others by general taxation. What is striking about these different variants though is that while some Americans rip these other systems, we here in America have forms of each of them. Medicare is run like Canada’s system. Veterans are put through a system like Britain’s. Americans with employee-sponsored plans are in a similar system as people in Germany. The difference is that those other countries provide health care more economically and more effectively than we do in America.
Why? The answer lies in what they have in common. They all have a single, unified system, which allows administrative efficiencies. Ours is fragmented and riddled with administrative costs and perverse economic incentives. Their programs are all non-profit, so there’s no need for insurance to cut coverage to maintain the bottom line as ours do. And they all provide universal coverage, which provides the economic incentive for preventative medicine. As Reid points out, the first question we need to ask ourselves is, do we think people should die due to lack of coverage? Or should people go bankrupt because they get sick? These are moral questions, and the US is the only rich developed nation that has so far said yes to them.
Reid does gloss over some things though. He pays little attention to costs, seeing it as a problem solved once the profit motive is gone, universal coverage is agreed upon, and government price controls are in place. Besides showing a complete lack of economic understanding, this also skirts the fact that costs in other countries are also increasing. He does point this out but only says that their costs are so much lower than America’s they can afford to let them rise. (For a more intelligent and nuanced analysis of the problem of cost in the US health care system and a unique idea for reform, see the article by David Goldhill in the September issue of `The Atlantic’.) He also polarizes the debate (like it needs more polarization) by getting into the `health care as a civil right’ question. He was better-off sticking with his stronger, moral point because it’s not at all inconsistent to think health care is NOT a civil right, but still have the moral conviction that everyone should have coverage. By putting these in black and white terms, he sounds like the European Socialist Liberal he had managed to avoid sounding like up to that point.
Still, assuming he hasn’t misrepresented anything in this book or provided inaccurate facts, this is important stuff. The health care debate is vitally important and I think every American should be armed with as much information as possible. That said, many articles by Reid and about this book have been published that will give you the basic facts outlined here. For most people, those articles should be enough. Only shell out for the book if you’re interested in a deep dive on the subject.
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|A Highly Readable, Brilliant Political Analysis of Health Reform,
This highly readable book is a brilliant political analysis of health reform, beginning with a well-researched, detailed history of the Affordable Care Act and ending with a realistic assessment of the political forces amassed against it and a moderately optimistic view of the likelihood of its implementation. In between it offers an enlightening and objective description of the Affordable Care Act’s impact on ordinary Americans. The wisdom and integrity of the two authors are reflected on virtually every page. The book’s foray into health economics, arguably a stretch for political scientists, is nevertheless credible. Its legal analysis is generally on target, but not sufficiently detailed to satisfy experts in health law. Although highly factual, this book is more engaging than a good novel. My only problem with it is that I had difficulty putting it down.
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|awesome!!!,
Great read!!! excellent review of the American Healthcare Act and how it was passed; couldnt put it down till i completed it!!! in addition, it gives you a good introduction to the politics of legislation and gives you a behind-the-scene view of the political process!!!!
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|every one should read this,
Everyone should read this. It explains the Health care refrom bill without all the emotion and lies that surrounded its passing.Americans need to start reading more and stop listening to Radio talk show host or others, who just blow a lot of hot air for big ratings, and lots of money for themselves. This will give you the truth and facts.
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