Blog and News

D4PC "Morning Rounds" Monday June 27, 2011

Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice.

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"The Waits That Matter", John Maa, MD in the New England Journal of Medicine

The tragic story related in "The Waits that Matter" is not just a case report, but provides a poignant illustration of a serious public health hazard. Emergency Department crowding is such a significant problem that a monthly newsletter is devoted to the topic: ED Overcrowding Solutions. Unfortunately, the new health care reform law passed last year will make the situation worse when 32 million more people are added to the health care system. Recent surveys of physicians and ED administrators verify this concern.

In the last 20 years, the number of EDs decreased nearly 30% while the number of patient visits increased 35%. Closures are more likely to occur in urban areas which service the poor. Since almost half of the newly covered under the PPACA are expected to be on Medicaid, these regions have the greatest need for expanded ED availability--just the opposite of what's happening. Mandated universal coverage has not solved the problem in Massachusetts where ER visits are increasing due to an increasing physician shortage.

Mandating the purchase of insurance and expanding public programs will not increase access or bring down health care costs. What is needed is a system which will address the causes of over-priced health care while maintaining patient freedom of choice. What is needed is The D4PC "Prescription" for Health Care Reform.

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Obamacare- "A Healthcare Reform for All?", American Thinker

For nearly 15 years, 90% of the American insured have been able to move freely from one health insurance policy to the next without any risk of being considered "uninsurable." They also are protected from having a medical condition that existed before switching policies (a "pre-existing condition") excluded from coverage. Why was HIPPA portability not extended to all Americans regardless of whether they buy group or individual health insurance coverage? That is a great question you should ask your elected official. For if the legislators had added just one sentence all Americans would have coverage for "pre-existing conditions" providing that they continue to maintain health insurance coverage.

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"Massachusetts Finds New System Not Cutting Health Costs", Boston Globe

In a mixed economy (a mixture of free market and government controls) like the American HCS, normal free market competition does not function and an efficient allocation of resources can not emerge. Belief in the need for government action to correct undesirable economic results lead to a call for more government meddling and an endless amount of regulations and bureaucracy.

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"The Truth About the Canadian Healthcare System", Frank Rosenbloom, MD in Cascade Policy Institute

"Other influential people have shared their concerns about the serious deficiencies in the Canadian health care system. Perhaps the most important of these is the man some call the ”father” of the Canadian health care system, Claude Castonguay. Castonguay was the pioneer of socialized medicine in Quebec, which gave impetus to the establishment of a nationwide socialized medical care law in 1966. However, in 2008 Castonguay had this to say about the health care system: “If nothing is done, at one point we will reach a crisis point. This is why we say it is urgent to act. How could this be? Haven’t we been led to believe that the Canadian health care system is financially stable? In fact, the system is close to collapse.

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"There's No Average Cancer Patient", Gregory Conko in Wall Street Journal

Two good op-ed pieces on the breast cancer drug Avastin. Both authors address the issue that the FDA is only concerned with populations and averages, not with real, existing, suffering human beings. The problem only arises, however, because payment for these treatments has been collectivized, either via government health care programs or through the cultural acceptance of an egalitarian "right" to health care. If each person was thought to have a right only to the health care they could pay for themselves or obtain with charity assistance, "cost effectiveness" would be an entirely personal and private decision.


"The Avastin Travesty", Thomas Bowden in Pajamas Media

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"How Obamacare Destroys Your Privacy", Betsy McCaughey in the New York Post

"The 2009 stimulus and the Obama health law enacted last year established a national electronic health database that will hold and display your lifelong medical history -- making it accessible to a troubling number of strangers, including government employees and a variety of health-care personnel. Government will oversee the network linking doctors and hospitals. Doctors will have to enter your treatments in the database, and your doctors' decisions will be monitored for compliance with federal guidelines". 

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