Tuesday, 19 February 2008

2007_06_01_archive



Who Killed Health Care?

Found this article by way of Dr. Ben Brewer, a family physician who

also happens to write a column for the Wall Street Journal called,

"The Doctor's Office".

Is Health Care Making You Better -- Or Dead?

We asked [Regina] Herzlinger, the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of

Business Administration Chair at the Harvard Business School, to

discuss her latest work and her more than 30 years of research in

the health care industry.

Q: What your book points out is that all the players and other

parts of the system are interdependent. And although you may have a

great doctor with the best intentions, the system may not allow him

or her to give the quality of care they would like to.

A: Absolutely. My heart really goes out to physicians nowadays.

They're like little hamsters running on a track, and they're

measured for their productivity, how many people they see. They

have lousy information systems to back them up. And then they have

a public policy establishment that more or less continuously

deprecates their ideas and squeezes down their income. Not a great

occupation to be in.

-----

There's always a tipping point, and we've hit the tipping point

here. I've read reviews of Michael Moore's Sicko. I haven't seen it

as yet. But what strikes me is that his diagnosis and my diagnosis

are very similar. He diagnoses the same problems--heartless,

insensitive, greedy, self-serving status quo--but his cure is a

government-run system, I gather from hearsay. I agree with the

diagnosis, but my cure is, yes, everybody should have health

insurance, but they should control it for themselves. It should be

run by the people, not by the government.

I'm an economist; I take economics very personally. My own view is

that the economic consequences of our present health care system

are disastrous and grievously injure the economy. It's not getting

any better, and none of the cures work.

Wow. Maybe health care reform and universal coverage will really

happen in my lifetime.

|| akifox 10:44 PM

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