Healthcare in this country is far from broken...

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I wish you'd written that first so I would have known to stop reading sooner.

"The HCAN report attributed this year's profits largely to insurers' dropping coverage of 2.7 million people, who then moved onto public insurance plans such as Medicaid.

"Under questioning from reporters, Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for HCAN, conceded that insurance companies don't bear all the blame for eliminating people from their rolls. He said that recession induced many employers to cut back on benefits, including health plans. Also, many who were laid off lost their insurance coverage and were forced to enroll in Medicaid."

"Indeed, a recent report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) found that health spending grew 5.7 percent, reaching $2.5 trillion in 2009, even though that overall economy declined by 1 percent. The report pointed to increased spending on hospitals, doctors, and medications as major drivers in the rising cost of health care."

Oh, yeah, Matthew - no, that's why I was vague - I wasn't sure if it was you or her.

A family doctor in private practive, eh?  Is she using EMRs?  I'd be happy to give her some tips!  My current specialty is Ambulatory, though I'm really only familiar with one of the major EMR software programs.

I also am firmly middle class - I have no kids and own no property, so it's a bit easier for me, but I have to say - working in health care doesn't make me financially wealthy, but it sure pays better than teaching high school history.  Plus, I don't have my hands tied - you know you can't mention any kind of Zinn in the classroom?  It's all White Man did this and White Man did that, and then in the shortest month of the year you get to talk about George Carver inventing peanut butter and show a video of MLK.  (No Malcolm X, though...)

Side rant over...

Kevin also works in Healthcare, and let me speak for Kevin and Matthew both, while addressing you (post-modern, or presumtious?) - I think we can all agree that Helath Care isn't broken.

Access to Health Care is, if not broken, horribly unworkable.  No?

It's not the work of Clinicians like Kevin or Matthew's wife that are the problem - in fact, America has some pretty awesome Clinicians.  But access to it is the problem.  No?

Is that a safe point to agree upon?

Oh, Matthew - sorry - I didn't address your point to me - sorry - I'm half-paying attention here - trying to clean my apartment, and pack for my next 2 weeks on the road (training doctors!)

Yes, very clearly I see that profits go up when enrollement goes down. 

But I would argue that health insurance isn't the type of business where profits should be chased.  I'm not against the free market, but there's a difference between selling ipods and selling insurance that will help you pay when you need medical help.

The guy making ipods should TOTALLY be chasing the bottom line - every last buck.  People dealing with Health Care should be making sure people get taken care of and if a buck is made, power to them.

Which is why I firmly believe the Government should be running that particular insurance policy - they're not concerned with profit and will even, much to our detrement, frankly, run at a loss at times.  But at least people will get health care.  People won't go without because someone at a Medicare office wants a raise, you know?

No, I get that point, but I think it only makes me want single-payer even more.

Matthew -

Wow!  That looks like the software I use - but in the article it's called something different - might be a similar thing.

Anyway - whereas I agree that there's no benefit in rushing something through, and while it is factually correct that the two bills sitting in congress were recently written... let's be clear about this fact:  Democrats have been trying to get Health Coverage for Americans since FDR.  For 75 years.  This debate isn't new.

What's more - as some wag pointed out last week - the current bill the democrats are trying to push through?  It's basically the bill the Republicans came up with in the 90s to counter First Lady Clinton's plan.  So... you know... it's facts like that, by the way, that are causing some Republicans to take note and realize what's going on - thus the calls I heard on CSPAN. 

I don't think there are a whole lot of rational people out there who want to deny people access to health care - it's more a matter of how are we going to do it, what is government's role, how is the free market affected, where does personal responsibility enter into it, etc.  But when one side offers up a plan, and then the other side says they'll use the plan, and the first side still says no, it's hard to fight the obstructionist label.

As for your point about once it's in place, it won't go away - it's funny - I was just reflecting on that.  We have a number of social insurance programs in place in America - nothing like what Canada has, but we have some basic programs that we all pay into and can withdraw from in times of need - unemployment, disability, Social Security, welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.  And you hear a lot from one side of the fence how these programs should be used as an example of how the Government can't run these sort of programs because they're always short of funds or under-deliver..

But they are underfunded and don't always deliver because that same party on that side of the fence has been fighting them from day 1.  They have an unhill battle not just against gravity and inertia, but against those who are philosophically opposed to them and campaign furiously to dismantle them.

How I wish the program would be put into place and then the only fights would be how to improve it, but even when this passes, and it will, the Republicans and the Tea-Partiers and Propaganda stations will be on overdrive with talk of death panels and other bizarre mis-statements.

How I wish...

In other news - who wants to join the new hot-drink party in town?? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02 /25/AR2010022505517.html

I'm joining this one.  I had a great time while campaigning for Obama - it's great to meet with people and figure out ways to better your community.  I'm all for this.