HealthCare REPAIR Thanks All Who Helped in Our Effort
Posted by: norao on: May 24, 2010
Thank you for you support and participation in HealthCare REPAIR over the last two years; your action helped to bring the importance of value-based health care to the attention of the Congress and the President during this intense and historic debate. We believe that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is an important initial step toward ensuring quality, affordable health care for all Americans, but we believe that much more needs to be done.
Even though the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center did not take a position of support or opposition to the final legislation, we believe that the new health care reform law contains provisions that are aligned with our principles for reform, principles that will begin to move us toward a system that provides all Americans with quality care at affordable costs. Some of these provisions include:
- Provisions to pay more for value – better health care outcomes at lower cost,
- Insurance reforms, including elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions,
- An insurance exchange, rather than an expansion of Medicare or a government-run public option,
- Subsidies for people with financial need to purchase health insurance,
- An independent payment advisory board, and
- Pilot projects on accountable-care organizations, medical homes and bundled payments.
The Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center continues to articulate our areas of agreement and areas of concern. We believe the pay-for-value provisions are a good start, but not comprehensive or aggressive enough to have an immediate impact on lowering the cost and improving the quality of health care. We are also concerned about the continued approach of funding reform through the use of across-the-board payment cuts.
With the passage of the bill, the specific work of HealthCare REPAIR is coming to a close, but our desire to keep the public engaged in the ongoing process continues. In the next few months we will be launching a new initiative called Americans for Better Health Care. Americans for Better Health Care (ABHC) will help the public understand how a value-based health care system can improve the lives of patients and their families by improving outcomes and lowering health care costs. As with HealthCare REPAIR, we will organize people to advocate publicly for the expansion of patient-centered care based on the idea of value in health care.
We’re currently developing the specifics of ABHC, and we’ll keep you posted as we progress. We might ask for your input as we develop the new program, so please keep an eye out for emails from us.
Once again, thank you very much for all your help and participation in HealthCare REPAIR. We look forward to working with you again as Americans for Better Health Care.
12 Responses to "HealthCare REPAIR Thanks All Who Helped in Our Effort"
July 25, 2009 at 3:38 PM
I am one of those healthcare workers. I have been doing this for many years and seen many changes. what is being proposed by our president scares me to death. My parents will not receive the current care that they do as they will be seen as no longer contributing to society so are not with the investment to be made in keeping them healthy based on age and disease process. Those with Alhzheimers will not be able to receive their meds as that cost will not be deamed as necessary. All those older people that you see sitting behind our president in his town meeting/debates are past the age of being contributing to society thus placing them at being ineligible for healthcare that they currently receive if we continue on this path to socialist like heathcare. Your health status and necessity is evaluated and you are put on a list. My cousin died several years ago on such a list in England as a young man of pneumonia. Many of those who receive medicaid are not truly justified.Some are not even citizens of this fair country. If people do not step up and look at what is being fed to us under a white cloud we will be in worsse shape then we are. Not all people will be insured as many a 37 million will still be without healthcare and we will have an even greater deficit to pass on to our children.Listen to those who are spoken of by our president as being leaders in healthcare what they have to suggest what they see solutions.Encourage delay in passing of the health reform till we are better informed.
November 18, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Oh, yeah, death panels. People dying while waiting for an aspirin in Canada and England (and all those other countries that pay a lot less for health care, and yet have much healthier, longer-lived populations than we do). Please observe the distinction between “health-care worker” and “insurance company shill.” As long as Americans are being denied basic health care in order to fatten the bonuses of middlemen executives, the system will remain broken.
I encourage all those who are fighting health-care reform to give up their “tainted” government sponsored health care. If you’re not for it, then don’t accept Medicare, VA care, or the superpremium health care that legislators get (provided and paid for by the government). Get out there and buy your own health care and don’t complain about the monthly premiums in the thousands of dollars, or the fact that whatever you end up needing will be — surprise! — denied due to “pre-existing conditions.”
And in the meantime, open the windows, the stench of hypocrisy is just too thick in here.
November 21, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Steve,
The healthcare that the members of Congress have is the same healthcare that all federal employees have. And it is offered by private insurance companies–it is NOT run by the federal government.
Although Medicare is partially funded by the federal government (through payroll taxes), more than 25% of Medicare beneficiaries participate in special Medicare programs that are run by private insurers. (It is called Medicare Advantage and they receive better benefits than Medicare for less cost than a Medicare Supplement policy.)
Lastly, I know people who have used the VA for their medical care. I have never met anyone who would choose the VA over a private doctor.
The government sponsored healthcare which you are applauding is actually being run by private insurers and it’s being run better by private insurers.
July 30, 2009 at 9:48 AM
My sister, an art teacher in Baltimore, was nearly eligible for her full pension when a catastrophic illness put her in a wheelchair. She now sits at home a paraplegic (nearly quadriplegic since she has limited use of her hands), depressed and feeling abandoned by our health care system. She, like more than 10-million other Americans, needs help at home. Her doctor prescribed it. But to my horror, her insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield (ironically, “CareFirst” in Maryland) feels that despite her spinal cord disease, a rectal prolapse which could cause her to hemorrhage, and an impacted colon which needs cleaning daily, she does not require skilled nursing and therefore is not covered. Her case manager at Blue Cross insists the decision is irrevocable and cannot be appealed since “custodial care is all that is required”. Her husband cannot do it, so she is expected to find help on her own — if she can afford it. She cannot.
As congress considers the daunting task of reforming our nation’s health care system –I cannot help but wonder if there will be any consideration for the growing number of Americans who need long-term care. The only recourse is to be wealthy (or lucky enough to be among the small minority who have an expensive long-term care policy) or be destitute, in a nursing home as a ward of the state.
Why are the long-term needs of so many ignored? Our nation’s population is aging and our politicians are near-sighted!!! This needs to be examined.
October 22, 2009 at 2:48 AM
I felt theConfrence call today was very informative(Oct21/09) Since your opinons carry a great deal of weight with the lay people,why not make these known in major newspapers as well on websites.The misinformation in Ashland Oregon where I reside isespecially rampant,and has one of the lowest Medicare reimbursment.
November 21, 2009 at 12:39 AM
Hiii
nice post and I encourage all those who are fighting health-care reform to give up their “tainted” government sponsored health care. If you’re not for it, then don’t accept Medicare, VA care, or the superpremium health care that legislators get (provided and paid for by the government)….
San Antonio Dentist
November 21, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Jaya,
The healthcare that the members of Congress have is the same healthcare that all federal employees have. And it is offered by private insurance companies–is is NOT run by the federal government.
Although Medicare is partially funded by the federal government (through payroll taxes), more than 25% of Medicare beneficiaries participate in special Medicare programs that are run by private insurers. (It is called Medicare Advantage and they receive better benefits than Medicare for less cost than a Medicare Supplement policy.)
Lastly, I know people who have used the VA for their medical care. I have never met anyone who would choose the VA over a private doctor.
Scott
February 22, 2010 at 9:41 AM
The US Healthcare system is too bloated. It needs to be fixed. It needs to be more inclusive. Medicare comes to mind.
May 22, 2009 at 1:49 AM
Anything is better than what we have. A system that rips off the consumer. It’s all about money. What happened to the dr who made house calls and bartered chickens for services rendered. Just a good neighbor helping another.
June 1, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Health care workers put a lot on the line. Many work extremely hard and very long hours. A chicken just doesn’t cut it anymore. The health care workers have bills to pay, too, and can’t pay with chickens.
December 1, 2009 at 9:31 AM
Check out the Northern Arkansas Free Health Clinic which give free healthcare to anyone since 1986! We can do this folks! Not a $Trillion Dollars. No insurance required!!