Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
A crucial Senate committee has approved legislation to reform the nation’s healthcare system. This is significant because it marks the first time the committee has acted on legislation to fulfill President Obama’s goal of reshaping how healthcare is paid for in the United States.
Specifically, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 13 – 10 — along strict party lines — to endorse a $600 billion measure to expand coverage to virtually all Americans by requiring individuals to get insurance with their employers contributing to the cost. If enacted into law, the legislation would provide federal aid to families and individuals who make less than four times the poverty level – approximately $88,000 for a family of four.
The committee’s chairman, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, missed the vote because of his ongoing treatment for brain cancer. Even though Senator Kennedy is acting behind the scenes in the push to pass this legislation, he remains one of the prime movers for enacting healthcare reform.
Tags: brain cancer, education, federal aid, health, Healthcare, healthcare reform, labor, legislation, Massachusetts, Pension Committee, President Obama, Senate, Senate committee, Senator Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy, United States
Posted in Economics, Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) response to the Obama Administration’s and Congressional Democrats’ efforts to pass healthcare reform legislation was to sponsor a “Hillarycare revisited” fund raising effort.
The RNC warned against “Obamacare” and pointed out that the government “already run
s car companies, banks and mortgage companies. Republicans believe that the last thing the American people want is government telling them when and where – or even whether – they can get medical treatment for their families.” “Hillarycare” refers to former President Bill Clinton’s failed attempt at reforming healthcare during the 1990s, an effort led by his wife, Hillary Clinton.
Republicans like John Boehner (R-OH) have raised the specter of a “bureaucrat standing between you and your doctor.” Perhaps it’s worth considering that we currently have an insurance company bureaucrat performing the same role. Also, government administered health options are almost uniformly popular. The World Health Organization ranks France’s healthcare system as the world’s finest, contrasted to the United States, which scored 37th. The United Kingdom’s combination of publicly and privately funded healthcare ranked 18th in the World Health Organization’s survey.
Tags: American, banks, bureaucrat, car companies, Congressional Democrats, doctor, France, government, government administered health, Healthcare, healthcare reform, healthcare system, Hillary Clinton, Hillarycare, insurance company bureaucrat, John Boehner, legislation, mortgage companies, Obama administration, Obamacare, President Bill Clinton, R-OH, Republican National Committee, Republicans, RNC, United Kingdom, United States, WHO, World Health Organization
Posted in Economics, Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Healthcare providers will slash up to $1.7 trillion in costs over the next 10 years by enhancing the care of chronic diseases, reorganizing administrative procedures and eliminating unnecessary treatments.
This is a sneak peak at how healthcare systems, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, insurers, medical device manufacturers and other stakeholders plan to respond to President Barack Obama’s request that the industry find ways to control patient costs. Among the American Medical Association’s (AMA) suggestions are cutting overused – and often unnecessary — procedures, such as Caesarean sections. The savings are crucial to funding the Obama administration’s proposed health system overhaul.
A new White House study states that reforming healthcare will increase the nation’s GDP by two percent in 2020 and eight percent in 2030, cut unemployment and save families an average of $2,600 a year by 2020. Without healthcare reform, the number of uninsured Americans will rise to 72 million by 2040, compared with 46 million today.
Christina Romer, chair of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said “The one thing that’s happened relative to the 1990s is the nightmare scenario is getting closer.” Other recommendations include reducing medical errors, using common insurance forms, improving physician performance standards, readmitting fewer patients to hospitals, improving drug development efficiency and expanding in-home care for patients with long-term illnesses.
Tags: AMA, American Medical Association, Caesarean section, Christina Romer, chronic diseases, Economic Advisers, GDP, healthcare industry, healthcare providers, healthcare reform, Healthcare systems, hospitals, in-home care, insurers, long-term illness, medical device manufacturers, patient costs, patients, pharmaceutical companies, physicians, President Barack Obama, reforming healthcare, treatment, uninsured Americans, White House
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Thursday, July 9th, 2009
In an era when healthcare costs are projected to rise to $4 trillion by 2016, it’s heartening to know that one of the nation’s highest-rated hospitals has some of the lowest costs. The Cleveland Clinic is regularly consulted by lawmakers and officials from the Obama Administration in their efforts at achieving healthcare reform – yet it operates more efficiently than most of its competitors.
“Everything we do is done with the patient at the center, not the doctor at the center,” said Dr. Steven Nissen. One way the Clinic provides exceptional care at reasonable cost is by using a model in which medical professionals practice side-by-side rather than in separate and — frequently — competitive departments.
President Barack Obama gave kudos to the Cleveland Clinic for its success. “Without a serious, sustained effort to reduce the growth rate of health care costs, affordable healthcare coverage will remain out of reach. So we must attack the root causes of the inflation in healthcare. That means promoting the best practices, not simply the most expensive. We should ask why places like the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, and other institutions can offer the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm. We need to learn from their successes and replicate those best practices. That’s how we can achieve reform that preserves and strengthens what’s best about our healthcare system, while fixing what is broken.”
As part of its road to excellence, the Clinic also promotes employee wellness. It doesn’t hire smokers; it sponsors a farmers’ market at its main campus, stocks its cafeterias with healthy foods and conducts yoga classes for patients and employees.
Tags: Healthcare, healthcare costs, healthcare coverage, healthcare reform, lawmakers, Mayo Clinic, medical professionals, Obama administration, President Bar, The Cleveland Clinic
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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
The solution to America’s healthcare crisis might just lie in deviant thinking. This is the message of Dr. Atul Gawande, this year’s commencement speaker at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. Gawande is a general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, an associate director of their Center for Surgery and Public Health, an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and at Harvard Medical School.
His concept of positive deviants identifies those communities and physicians who discover innovative ways to reduce costs and improve care to deliver better outcomes.
Gawande cites a nutritionist who spent his career attempting to reduce hunger in Vietnamese villages. This man asked villagers to identify which families had the best-nourished children to determine a “positive deviance” from the norm. The answer was that those children’s mothers did not act in accordance with accepted village wisdom had the best outcomes. Rather, they fed their children even when they had diarrhea; fed them several small meals daily rather than one or two large ones; and fed their children foods that others considered low class but were nutritious such as sweet potato greens.
In the American healthcare system, the positive deviants resist the tendency to view patients primarily as revenue streams – but as human beings. Rather, these physicians deliver high-value healthcare without focusing too strongly on their practices’ bottom lines; they neither over-treat nor under-treat their patients with extraneous but profitable tests and procedures.
To quote Gawande, “Look for those in your community who are making healthcare better, safer and less costly. Pay attention to them. Learn how they do it. And join with them.”
Tags: America, best-nourished, Boston, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Center for Surgery and Public Health, children, community, cost reduction, Dr Atul Gawande, endocrine surgeon, family, general surgeon, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, healthcare crisis, healthcare system, improved care, innovation, low class, nutritionist, patients, physician, postive deviance, Pritzker School of Medicine, reduce hunger, University of Chicago, Vietnamese villages
Posted in Economics, General, Healthcare, Hospital Systems, Wellness Centers | No Comments »
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Congress is drafting historic legislation intended to restructure the American healthcare system. At a time when healthcare costs total $2.4 trillion annually (an average of $7,868 per person), are projected to rise to $4 trillion by 2016 and 46 million Americans lack any insurance coverage, the legislation is badly needed. According to a draft outline, the legislation might call for mandatory insurance requirements, which could conceivably be sold either through a national or state-based exchange. The bill is also likely to include a government-backed plan to control 
costs.
The Joint Committee on Taxation opined that the size of the savings might fall under several taxation arrangements, which could be essential in determining how to pay for the reform bill. The legislation includes an opportunity to drop the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, which is perceived by many as fatally flawed.
The legislation also will bring provider payments into line with recommendations from the Medicare Advisory Payment Commission, and allow payment alternatives for healthcare systems that offer coordinated care and focus on preventative health. Medicaid would be expanded, with subsidies available to pay for coverage.
A quick analysis concludes that the House draft will cost more than legislation currently under consideration in the Senate. So far, neither Democrats nor Republicans have been able to decide how to pay for the bill, which could total more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
Tags: American, Congress, cost control, Democrats, government-backed plan, Healthcare, healthcare costs, healthcare system, historic legislation, insurance coverage, insurance requirements, Joint Committee on Taxation, Medicaid, Medicare Advisory Payment Commission, national, reform bill, Republicans, state-based exchange, Sustainable Growth Rate formula, taxation
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Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
The recession and its impact on investment portfolios, as well as declining Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, are making physicians rethink their retirement dates.
Some physicians have seen their stock markets portfolios fall by as much as 50 percent. In today’s economy, selling practices might not bring the anticipated profit, according to William Jessee, M.D., president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association. “I look at my 401(k) and think ‘Okay, I just turned 62, and 70 is starting to look like a better retirement field,’” Dr. Jessee said.
A 2007 survey of 1,200 physicians found that 48 percent aged 50 to 65 were planning to retire, find non-clinical jobs, work part-time, close their practices to new patients and/or substantially reduce their patient load. Since the survey was conducted, Americans’ retirement funds have lost as much as $2 trillion.
“It has not been entertaining watching all my hard-earned money disappear,” according to Jeffrey Sankoff, 41, a Denver physician. “But I’ve got about 10 to 15 years before I need to worry because my 401(k) will just sit there and eventually recover and grow. Those physicians closer to retirement age – hopefully their portfolio is balanced in such as way that this catastrophe won’t have as big of an impact as it’s had on me.”
The silver lining in these deferred retirements is that they could prevent a physician shortage, a result of medical schools capping their enrollments at 16,000 students per year because they believed that managed care would create a glut. It is estimated the shortage could be as much as 250,000 physicians in the next 10 years.
Tags: 401 K, 401K, American, economy, investment portfolio, Medicaid, Medical Group Management Association, medical school, Medicare, non-clinical jobs, physician shortage, physicians, profit, recession, reimbursements, retirement, retirement funds, stock market, stock market portfolio
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Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer’s negative assessment of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform package is based on his belief that the plan is economically feasible only if that care is rationed.
To quote Krauthammer: “Rationing is not quite as alien to America as we think. We already ration kidneys and hearts for transplant according to survivability criteria, as well as by queuing. A nationalized health insurance system would ration everything from MRIs to intensive care by myriad similar criteria.”
Krauthammer’s personal preference is “for a highly competitive, privatized health insurance system with a government-subsidized transition to portability, breaking the absurd and ruinous link between health insurance and employment. But if you believe healthcare is a public good to be guaranteed by the state, then a single-payer system is the next best alternative. Unfortunately, it is fiscally unsustainable without rationing.”
Krauthammer is wrong! In the United States, healthcare is rationed but it is according to your income and insurance status. And for the 47 million Americans who don’t have insurance, we ARE already rationing everything, “from MRIs to intensive care (to use Krauthammer’s examples)”. We have to accept that no matter what the system is that we adopt, that rationing will occur. The issue is rationing that is unethical and doesn’t meet the mission of healthcare. The way to mitigate rationing in a nationalized system may be to do what the British Medical Association has suggested, which is to define a set of core services – cardiac care, for example – -which may fall under the rubric of life threatening. These would never be rationed regardless of who you are. More elective procedures or non life-threatening procedures, on the other hand, would be rationed. We can’t expect our health system to do it all and this seems a modest proposal.
Tags: America, British Medical Association, cardiac care, Charles Krauthammer, employment, government-subsidized transition, health insurance, health system, Healthcare, healthcare reform, intensive care, MRIs, nationalized health insurance system, non life-threatening procedures, President Barack Obama, President Obama, privatized health insurance system, single-payer system, survivability criteria, United States
Posted in Economics, Healthcare, Healthcare Village, Wellness Centers | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Barack Obama may get his way on healthcare reform with the full cooperation of those who vocally lobbied against it during the 1990s. The timing couldn’t be better — healthcare costs total $2.4 trillion annually (an average of $7,868 per person) and are projected to rise to $4 trillion by 2016.
In a reversal, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, physicians and other industry leaders presented a plan to the White House proposing to save $2 trillion in healthcare delivery costs over the next 10 years. Participants included the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Service Employees International Union — which master-minded the bold move. Although healthcare costs will continue to rise, this plan will slow the pace.
“We cannot continue down the same dangerous road we’ve been traveling for so many years, with costs that are out of control, because reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait,” Obama said.
Obama’s proposed plan is based on the existing system, where employers, the government and individuals share responsibility for paying for privately delivered healthcare. The government will subsidize coverage for additional people and mandate stricter consumer protection.
It’s evident that the healthcare industry has seen the writing on the wall. Their willingness to work with the Obama Administration and Congress – compared with the fierce opposition to Bill Clinton’s healthcare reform efforts 15 years ago – is a turnaround that should translate to real change.
Tags: Advanced Medical Technology Association, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, American's Health Insurance Plans, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, healthcare costs, healthcare reform, Obama administration, pharmaceutical companies, physicians, President Barack Obama, private healthcare, Service Employees International Union, White House
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
The Obama administration is playing hardball to force Congress to pass healthcare reform legislation before the end of the year – preferably without the customary Republican-led filibuster delaying the final vote. 
President Obama’s aggressive approach to protect healthcare legislation from Republican filibusters demonstrates the magnitude this ambitious reform package and has come to be called in some circles the nuclear option.
The agreement between the White House and Congressional Democrats lets healthcare legislation that meets budget targets win approval by a simple Senate majority — a process called reconciliation. Not surprisingly, Republican leaders are up in arms about the no-filibuster deal, claiming that healthcare is too important to be exempt from the Senate’s usual rules.
Republicans have threatened to use their own procedural weapons to bog down the Senate if the Democrats try to restrict filibusters. Options include forcing multiple votes on routine bills, inaction on administration nominations, or requiring lengthy legislation to be read in full. Even some Democrats – notably Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Max Baucus of Montana – are uncomfortable with reconciliation. Other Democrats point out that Senate Republicans successfully used reconciliation to enact President George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.
The president is relying on his significant political capital to push his agenda through, relying on unwavering support from his sizable Senate Democratic majority. This is likely to total 60 Senators once the Minnesota courts finally certify Al Franken’s victory, and as a result of Arlen Specter’s surprise exit from the Republican Party. That could give President Obama the filibuster-proof majority he wants.
Tags: Al Franken, Arlen Specter, Congress, Congressional Democrats, Democrat, George W Bush, Healthcare, Kent Conrad, legislation, Max Baucus, Minnesota, Montana, no-filibuster deal, North Dakota, Obama, Obama administration, political capital, President Obama, reconciliation, Republican, Republican-led filibuster, White House
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