No Easy Health Reform

Kevin · � #1 � 03-05-2009, 09:24 AM

This article from NYTimes.com is interesting.

Quote:

Recently, I went to the drugstore to fill a prescription. Instead, I left with a costly lesson in health care economics.

At the checkout, I was surprised when the clerk billed me for $100 instead of my usual small co-payment. It was only then that I realized my doctor had traded me up to a costly branded migraine drug, even though the old drug had worked just fine. And I had allowed it.

As a conversation about health care reform intensifies in Washington, much of the focus is on the role the government and insurance companies will play in a revamped health system. But surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role that patients and their doctors have played in shaping the way medical care is delivered.

Ultimately, for any reform to work, patients will have to change their behavior. Of course, everyone should continue to demand the best possible care. But we will have to accept that �best� doesn�t always mean the newest drug or the latest treatment. The looming question is whether patients are ready to embrace the realities of reform.
..............

A Hurdle for Health Reform: Patients and Their Doctors

Kevin · � #2 � 03-05-2009, 09:39 AM

Chatted with a German friend last week, what she told me about German health industry was astonishing. In the last two years, their new policies favored the insurance industry more and more, which made it quite hard for the doctors. Many of them have been going abroad to work, some private clinics were shut down. Health business has become a poor business lately there.

Cookie · � #3 � 03-05-2009, 03:06 PM

You know what? If the clerk billed me $100, you can bet they would have been picking up the phone, and calling my physician to have my normal Rx filled! Why are consumers afraid to speak up, and question their doctors?

Cookie · � #4 � 03-05-2009, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin

Chatted with a German friend last week, what she told me about German health industry was astonishing. In the last two years, their new policies favored the insurance industry more and more, which made it quite hard for the doctors. Many of them have been going abroad to work, some private clinics were shut down. Health business has become a poor business lately there.

Interesting.

pinballdoctor · � #5 � 03-07-2009, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin

Chatted with a German friend last week, what she told me about German health industry was astonishing. In the last two years, their new policies favored the insurance industry more and more, which made it quite hard for the doctors. Many of them have been going abroad to work, some private clinics were shut down. Health business has become a poor business lately there.

Things are only going to get worse.

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