In The Spotlight

A SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM: THE FRENCH MODEL

The health care situation in this country has reached crisis proportions and is threatening the very stability of our economy. Approximately 47 million people in this country have no health insurance—either because they can’t afford it or because they have been denied coverage due to their medical history. Millions of people who do have insurance are under-insured because the policies are so expensive, and the high deductibles on the policies discourage people from getting care when they need it. The result is that people don’t have access to preventive care and the population is not healthy. The poor national health necessitates ever more expensive treatments, which in turn causes the prices of insurance premiums and medical care to rise even further. It has become a vicious cycle of upward-spiraling costs.

In our current system, those of us who are fortunate enough to have health insurance pay hundreds of dollars per month for a premium from a private insurance company. When multiplied by the millions of people with insurance, this represents huge sums of money. So why are we denied care?

To answer that question, let’s look at how these insurance companies spend their money. First, they spend huge sums on lavish CEO salaries and bonuses—this is no secret. They also spend huge sums on corporate jets and exotic vacations for their executives. Next, they are required to pay dividends to shareholders. Finally, they spend millions on advertising and lobbying. Every day we see insurance ads on TV, in magazines and newspapers, and on billboards. These ads cost a lot of money. It is also no secret that the insurance lobby is one of the most powerful in Washington, Sacramento, and every state capital across the nation. Thousands of highly-paid lobbyists wine and dine politicians, and many millions are spent on campaign contributions to politicians across the country. How can they pay for all this? By denying people like us the care and treatments we need and deserve. This is a moral outrage, and this is what is wrong with the health care system in our country.

So how do we fix this situation? I am fortunate to have experienced another kind of system, which I would like to talk about. I lived in France for 15 years, where they have a single-payer system, and I think we could model our new system on theirs.

Unfortunately, however, single payer has gotten a bad rap in this country because people confuse it with socialized medicine. So let me explain the difference between the two.

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Hijacking the AMA’s Endorsement:

A Tale of Two Press Releases

By Robert B. Sklaroff and Robert R. Guzzardi

November 15, 2009

Did the AMA truly endorse ObamaCare this weekend? Not really, notwithstanding media reports.

To understand the dynamics of what transpired, it is necessary to depict the interaction of the House of Delegates (which convenes semi-annually) and the President (who conducts business in the interim). All actions of the latter must be divulged to and corroborated by the former, recognizing that public emergence of any schism would foment embarrassment …enervating to the AMA and, thus, to both.

Why physicians cannot, instead, become energized by the healthcare reform debate is dramatized by events of the past five days. They can easily be tracked by consulting one page on the AMA’s web-site…after one learns how to interpret both “commissions” and “omissions.”

Policy is Codified

What happened during this Interim Meeting can be divined following a critical review of the hyperlinks originating on the “Meeting Highlights” page (http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/meeting/highlights.shtml).

During this convocation, four core principles adopted at the Annual Meeting this past June were reaffirmed (pluralism, freedom of choice, freedom of practice, and universal access for patients) and elucidated thusly:

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Keep Getting Mammograms!

The New Recommendations are Flawed

By Robert B. Sklaroff and Robert R. Guzzardi

November 29, 2009

Healthcare bureaucrats can’t take “yes” for an answer! Mammograms are so effective in reducing breast cancer mortality that they think a few more deaths are OK…to save a buck.

This startling departure from precedent, common sense, and cogent scientific analysis emanated from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). It served to besmirch the sterling reputation of “Public Health” and thereby presage the impact of “death panels” lying at the heart of ObamaCare.

When the recommendation cut-backs were announced, Americans recoiled in unison. Not only did they recount personal experiences that contravened these constraints, but experts were able to dramatize the disconnect between the database and how it had been misconstrued.

This forced Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to retreat from her internal group’s opinions. But the acute and chronic damage is immutable, for its ripple-effect has denuded how even cancer prevention could be defunded…and become rationed. That’s what happens when a panel devoid of oncologists is empowered to interpret information without appreciating the need for sensitivity as to how its judgments would be applied at the bedside.

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The Allied Health Section of the Florida Department of Health has nominated Joanna Daniels as Employee of the Month for December 2009

Joanna exemplifies the laudable combination of high quality standards for her own performance, hard work including some long hours, and dedication to the mission of the Department. She exhibits these qualities on a regular and long-term basis, not just occasionally.

After the attorney who handled all of the Physical Therapy cases left PSU, Joanna was asked after to take over full responsibility for Physical Therapy, and she agreed even though she was not relieved of her responsibility for handling her Chiropractic case load. In fact, because of the prolonged shortage of attorneys on her team, she was asked to take a greater role on Chiropractic cases, and she rose to the challenge: for a time she handled all of the PT cases and virtually all of the Chiro work as well.

But even more impressive is the fact that, although Joanna came down with swine flu not long ago, she still handled her scheduled Probable Cause Panel meeting, presenting her cases telephonically from her sick bed.

In addition, Joanna is knowledgeable, professional and thorough, and she has received glowing compliments from Board counsel as well as her Team Leader. She is an asset to the Allied Health Section and to PSU.