Health Care Suggestions

"Today's Democratic dilemma with health care reform transcends partisanship: we really need to constrain health care spending lest we bankrupt the country. Expanding coverage without curbing costs and changing the incentive structure of our inflationary, fee-for-service model is a recipe for fiscal irresponsibility that we cannot afford. The Massachusetts senatorial election makes it evident that the electorate has come to this conclusion. The Democrats need a way out of this mess; so does the country."

Charles Kolb (a Republican), President, Committee for Economic DevelopmentPosted: February 4th on Huffingtin Post.

I recently spoke with a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, whose practice includes alternative medicines like acupuncture. She made it clear that our health care system was skewed toward fattening the coffers of the insurance companies. I brought up my idea of drastically changing the paradigm of health care delivery--mobile units replacing fixed, expensive buildings and resultant overhead costs--and she said there were already such services, but extremely limited in distribution obviously. She further mentioned the 1914 outlawing of homeopathic medicine, even though, ironically, homeopathic medicine saved more lives during the contemporary flu pandemic than any other form of remedy. She convinced me, too, (aided by commonsense assessments based on my own medical circumstances and following the news) that we need single payer, universal health care insurance in America, where doctors are paid a salary.

I therefore conclude that we need a truly bi-partisan way to get universal health care that includes homeopathic medicine as the major driver of preventive care.

OVERVIEW

I don't like confrontation...like that between the two aisles of the US Congress. So I propose that the health care debate, which epitomizes this problem, be tackled sideways.
Democrats are perceived as pushing a large government program which a) unacceptably increases the size of government, and b) costs too much.

* There's a need to clarify whether objection is to perceived government inability to run a large program without stultifying bureaucracy and incompetence, or to something else. Would objection be levied against such government programs as Medicare, Social Security, public schools, or the Postal Service? What if, like the Postal Service, the government delegates the running of health care to a private entity?

* The other problem, and one that I wish to focus on, is the matter of cost. I am convinced that, if we think outside the box, health care can be provided to all at a surprisingly low cost. Here are some outside-the-box thoughts on the subject:

SUGGESTIONS

1) Discard Aesthetics: (I oversimplify for emphasis.) I mean that health care should be administered with only the patients' health in mind, not expensive buildings and infrastructure that don't, by themselves, serve the need of health care.

2) Mobile Health Care: Provide a network of mobile health care units that serve the entire nation. In the construction of the units, discard any expense that has no direct bearing on the dispensing of care. For instance, consider converting old vehicles, like discarded school buses for this purpose. Try to maximize the number of patents that can be treated simultaneously.

3) Focus on Preventive Care: Traditional Western medicine, as practiced today, provides two major services: a) diagnostics, and b) catastrophic-trauma care. It does NOT provide preventive health care. Diagnostics that never address care is a waste of money.

4) Health Care is relevant to International Relations: The US needs an influx of high-level-skill workers. Some of these can bring expertise in alternative medicine. China, for example (which has the potential to be either more of a competitor or more of a collaborator with the US) could be a source of modestly paid but very competent practitioners and educators in Oriental Medicine.

5) Keep Costs Radically Low: Keep universal health care costs within the limits of what some Republicans are willing to spend on it. If costs can be kept sufficiently low, the Republican objections around cost will be ameliorated.

6) Computerization: Digitize patients' records, so that information can be streamlined and appropriately and efficiently shared among health practitioners.

7) Enable Appropriate Programs: Fund groups that are already working in a manner consistent with the above. Help these existing groups take on a major bulk of the new program.

8) Transition funds away from the war on drugs (which is counterproductive) by decriminalizing some drugs while, simultaneously upgrading the level and availability of treatment for drug addiction. The goal should be to decriminalize some narcotics while ensuring that the current rate of addiction and narcotics-related health problems decreases. Funds saved from the war on drugs will go toward the health care program.

A Message to the President

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brenner/obamas-tribulation-home-a_b_450926.html

I loved this article, although I think it may bear re-reading and reinterpreting in somewhat simpler prose.

This is the crux of the matter. What we do domestically is morphed with that abroad. I'm grateful to Michael Brenner for explaining it so ably...even though it needs to be repeatedly, and even more simply, explained.

And Haiti's earthquake was a fault line in America's dealing with itself and the world. Given our immense historical involvement with Haiti, and our wealth and proximity, our response was top heavy, mindless and lumbering in the extreme. This, despite the amazing generosity of our people -- a case of American duality, I guess.

The need to re-think Haiti parallels the need to do likewise for America. Political gridlock and polarization, coupled with a failing economy--among the list of ills Michael Brenner describes--have rendered our nation on the brink of catastrophe. Where health care is concerned, for example, we have become a third world nation.

Haiti needs to be tent-city for a while as it transitions, first, into semi-permanent and then permanent living mode. America needs a public option health plan that is administered in tents and mobile units. We need to get down to reality, putting aside false pride and ostentation. Great schools can exist in tents or old school busses or just about anything that is weather appropriate.

When we get down to reality here, we'll have the money to keep our people healthy, and by the same token, able to lay the groundwork for a global shoring up, creating the broad, sketchy outlines for a re-thought planet. Tent cities, basic food and medical supplies are widely needed worldwide. Social and physical infrastructure to offset the increasing damage of global warming must be put in place. Once the "sketch" is made, we need to get the rich countries (very much including China) to help us fill in the details.

The key is to use cheap, "appropriate" means based on sophisticated systems (global) thinking--proper thinking is the main priority--to deal with America and the world. We must deal with America well in order to deal appropriately with the world. We must deal with the world well in order to deal appropriately with America.

I concede that President Obama doesn't get it, can hardly be expected to, given the tiger he's riding. We, the people, need a coherent alternative to the Tea Party to see that he gets this message. The Tea Party folks are organized. Where are the rest of us?