THCB

Categories

Above the Fold

The bizzaro world of McCain’s health care politics

• 4

By Matthew Holt

I sometimes write two different versions of pieces, one for you wonks at THCB and one for the more general crowd at Spot-on. Well to be more accurate I write one version which gets edited heavily over at Spot-on, so today here I’m putting up the THCB version of the one that went up on Spot-on yesterday.

My 6 weeks of traveling the world on an extended honeymoon is over. Thanks very much to Brian Klepper and the cast of thousands who’ve been keeping THCB rolling excellently while with my lovely wife Amanda I’ve been diving on coral reefs, sleeping under the stars with the Bedouin, exploring 3,500 year-old tombs, watching Lions tear apart a buffalo, and tracking chimps hanging out in the rain forest. (Pictures of all this and more to come, I promise)

So what better way to return than to enter the jungle of US Presidential politics? Yesterday I sat in on 2 conference calls. One from the McCain camp on their man’s health care proposal, the other from the Campaign for America’s Future, which is promoting Jacob Hacker’s plan as the theory behind both Clinton and Obama’s policy intentions. It wasn’t pretty.

McCain’s proxies were Douglas Holtz-Eakin, sensible former CBO director, and Carly Fiorina, the fired HP ex-CEO who has been rehabilitating herself by taking credit for her successor’s success, and been hanging out on the McCain campaign as adviser for tech. Apparently she’s on the VP shortlist, and if so, we got a lot of taste of what we can expect. The choice is between free market choice, and the government telling your family which doctor it can go and see. Yes, you’re going to hear “government run heath care care” alot as if we’re all moving to the Gulag.

(Carly also made an amusing slip when she said that McCain favored importing of generic prescription drugs. Generic drugs are of course usually cheaper here—it’s re-importation of branded drugs that McCain supports, which will lose him the odd contribution from PhRMA).

But no matter competition and choice is always cheaper—trust her.  But then again Carly knows all about succeeding in the free market, right?

 

Continue reading…

Seventh Annual Information Therapy Conference

• 2

WIxRED: Next Generation Patient-Centered Care As we engage in a national debate about the directions of health care reform, many experts agree that patient-centered care and health information technology (HIT) are critical elements of our future delivery system. The 2008 Information Therapy (Ix®) Conference at the sensational new Newseum will provide a fabulous venue for a national dialog on the intersection of patient-centered care and HIT. On June 12-13, the 7th annual Ix Conference will challenge health care leaders to seize the opportunity for enhanced patient-centered care and system redesign by integrating Ix initiatives into HIT implementation. Click here to learn more.

Who the Health Cares?

By Matthew Holt

After the hotties from Rocketboom, now politics has a daily quickie from another cutie called Lindsay Campbell (the site Moblogic.tv is run by CBS rather than some indie company), but this episode, Who the Health Cares?, points out very sensibly that the Democrats in Congress aren’t really interested in health reform the way that Clinton and Obama say they are.

Lindsay thinks that all the Dems should sign onto the Conyers single payer bill….

CarePages at BIDMC

By Paul Levy

A suggestion from e-Patient Dave after his treatment at our hospital last year prompted us to start offering Carepages to our patients. The idea is to make it easy for people to create and update a private and personalized web page where they can share their latest news with friends and family and receive messages of support. There is no charge to the patient for this service.
Similar services had been available to patients if they made an effort to find them, but Dave was right to suggest that we offer it directly. For some reason, we were a bit behind the times on this matter, and I am glad he pointed it out to us.
Proving again that patients really have good ideas about how to make life better for patients. Duh!

King of the Serengeti

 

While we’re on the theme of the health care jungle, here’s one more for you. This young lion and his buddy spent the night feasting on this buffalo.

While I was away….

• 1
   

I met this little baby cheetah….

Meanwhile, over at Spot-on I’m up discussing the McCain health care plan and some of the Democratic reactions to it.

My six weeks of traveling the world on an extended honeymoon is
over. With my lovely wife Amanda I’ve been diving on coral reefs,
sleeping under the stars with the Bedouin, exploring 3,500 year-old
tombs, watching lions tear apart a buffalo, and tracking chimps hanging
out in the rain forest.
What better way to return than to enter the jungle of U.S. Presidential politics? MORE As ever come back here to comment.

John McCain and The Politics of The Uninsured

• 7

By Robert Laszewski

John McCain spoke about health care in Tampa on Tuesday and tried to
answer many of the questions that have been raised about his health
care reform plan.

The most pressing question is how would people with preexisting
conditions get health care coverage in his plan? The worry is that his
plan emphasizes tax incentives for consumers to purchase coverage in
the individual health insurance market that relies so heavily on
upfront medical underwriting.

Here is how his website explained his answer to that question:

John
McCain Will Work With States To Establish A Guaranteed Access Plan. As
President, John McCain will work with governors to develop a best
practice model that states can follow – a Guaranteed Access Plan or GAP
– that would reflect the best experience of the states to ensure these
patients have access to health coverage. One approach would establish a
nonprofit corporation that would contract with insurers to cover
patients who have been denied insurance and could join with other state
plans to enlarge pools and lower overhead costs. There would be
reasonable limits on premiums, and assistance would be available for
Americans below a certain income level.

I am frankly amazed he offered this as a "solution."

Continue reading…

Around the Web in 60 Seconds (Or Less)

By THCB STAFF

Highly Credible Poll of the Day: Seven percent of Americans marry for health insurance. 

WSJ Health Blog:  In wake of celebrity snooping cases UCLA officials say "new system will make employees list their connection to the patient
and will warn them if they’re entering “an especially protected chart."

Calif. Gov will try to push through health care plan in Sacramento after defeat last year. Schwarzenegger to AP: "We’ll try again. We will continue on, keeping
the stakeholders together, fine-tuning it and seeing if we can improve
on it since we have the time now, then be back again. We feel very
confident."

Relatives of U.S. victims testify to Congress in tainted heparin case.

FDA: Contamination "probably intentional."

National Review: "incident exposes the ugly little secret about drug importation as a
means to lower the cost of medicine. Substandard and counterfeit drugs
proliferate in many countries in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere."

Surrendered to the void: LSD inventor Albert Hoffman dead at the age of 102. 

NIH Joins Newly Formed International Cancer Genome Consortium

Washington Post: Two Research Teams Reverse Congenital Blindness Using Genetically Altered Viruses

Seattle Times: Targeted Genetics Introduces Gene Therapy

Washington Post: Mining Cancer with Nano Gold in Maryland

MedPage: Pretty Pictures – French Develop Next-Gen, Graphical Medical Communications System

Open Call to MedBloggers- Join Blogging Against Disablism Day May 1st

Healthcare stocks. What’s the prognosis?

assetto corsa mods