Monday, October 12, 2009
All we need is the will.
This morning's featured speaker at MGMA was T.R. Reid, of Washington Post, NPR and new book about health care around the world fame. His speech covered a lot of territory and included some humorous tidbits (Why doesn't French health insurance cover Viagra, according to the country's health minister? Because French men don't need it.)
Anyway, after all his travels, he came to one main conclusion about why the U.S. health care system is different (and more of a mess than) others around the world: our variety of coverage. "In all of the other countries, they've settled on one model for everybody," he said. In contrast, the U.S.'s major achievement is having an example of every possible coverage plan (compare the VA, Medicare, employer-sponsored coverage, and uninsured care), which adds complexity, administrative cost and little incentive to prevent illness, not to mention being unfair.
The good news is that he thinks there's hope for us: "If the U.S. could find the political will to provide health care for everybody, the other rich countries could show us the way."
Labels: MGMA conference
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
12:00 PM
ACP Internist hosted Grand Rounds on June 16, wrapping up the best of the medical blogosphere. Click here for the complete wrap-up.
Contact ACP Internist
Send comments to ACP Internist staff at acpinternist@acponline.org.
Previous Posts
- No limos, but I did just ride down the hall in a g...
- Medical News of the Obvious
- Saving money with limos
- QD: News Every Day on insurance coverage, primary ...
- MGMA: Ill-advised session titles
- QD: News Every Day--health care reform / Surgeon G...
- Not an uplifting post
- QD: News Every Day--obesity, H1N1 and faking illne...
- 1500 calories for $5--good deal or bad?
- Is there anything the Med diet can't do?
Blog log
American Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, ACP Member, associate program director at New York University Medical Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news, commentary and more.
db's Medical Rants
Robert M. Centor, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating medicine and the health care system.
Everything Health
EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.
Getting Better with Dr. Val
Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health. It is devoted to helping people understand health issues from a balanced, scientifically sound perspective.
HealthHombre
A roundup of health policy news drawn from a database of hundreds of Web sites.
Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news of the day.
Kevin, MD
The alter ego of Kevin Pho, ACP Member, is the closest thing to royalty in the medical blog world.
LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert
Major guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and/or major reviews by national and international organizations.
PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by a doctor.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home