Drum Major Institute Blog : Letter to the Editor of the Week

By Amy Traub on Health Care

On Monday, the New York Times ran an op-ed by President Bush's economic advisor, Alan Hubbard, trying to make a case for the Bush Health Savings Account plan .

At its foundation, Hubbard's point rests on the deeply flawed argument that "health care is expensive because the vast majority of Americans consume it as if it were free." For a lengthy, but lucid and (dare I say?) entertaining refutation of this point, see Malcolm Gladwell's excellent piece in the New Yorker .

Or for a more personal take, check out our letter to the editor of the week.

Amy Khoudari, I salute you.

* * * * * *
April 5, 2005

To the Editor:

As a self-employed, self-insured person, I own one of those expensive high-deductible insurance policies that Allan B. Hubbard seems to think will make Americans healthier.

This is how it works for me.

I put off going to the doctor as long as I can and as often as I can because although my insurance is among the most expensive, it doesn't pay anything for office visits or things like post-operative physical therapy.

So yes, I keep the cost of my own health care low because it's too expensive to pay for things every time I have pain or an illness. I usually self-medicate, and sometimes when the pain is really bad, I just tough it out.

Sometimes I end up going to the doctor, where I pay exorbitantly high fees for the insurance-recommended seven minutes with a physician.

Am I healthier because my medical care is so expensive and covers so little? No, I'm just silent and uncounted when I'm sick. All the while, I hope and pray that I'll be able to hold out another nine years until Medicare can take care of some of the costs.

See, Mr. Hubbard, your plan works just great. The insurance companies get to rake it in, and if I'm not healthier because of it, no one even has to know about it.

Amy S. Khoudari
New York, April 3, 2006

The world health report 2006 - working together for health

"The World Health Report 2006 - Working together for health contains an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and ambitious proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately. The report reveals an estimated shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses and support workers worldwide. The shortage is most severe in the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where health workers are most needed. Focusing on all stages of the health workers' career lifespan from entry to health training, to job recruitment through to retirement, the report lays out a ten-year action plan in which countries can build their health workforces, with the support of global partners."
Download by chapters or as full report (PDFs).
Source: World Health Organization

Originally posted by Resourceshelf's DocuTicker

Genworth Financial 2006 Cost of Care Survey: Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities and Home Care Providers (PDF; 1.9 MB)

From press release:"The average cost of long term care in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and in the home increased over the past year, with assisted living and in-home costs rising more sharply than nursing home care, according to Genworth Financial's annual "Cost of Care" survey. And, in the face of rising costs for all categories of long term care, Genworth found 65 percent of Americans surveyed in a new national poll admit to having made no long term care plans for themselves or a spouse."
Source: Genworth Financial

Originally posted by Resourceshelf's DocuTicker

Life expectancy: women now on top everywhere (PDF; 47 KB)

"The year 2006 should not be allowed to pass without at least a quiet celebration that this is the first year in human history when -- across almost all the world -- women can expect to enjoy a longer life expectancy than men. That the trend is moving in this direction will probably be confirmed this week in the 2006 world health report."
Source: British Medical Journal

Originally posted by Resourceshelf's DocuTicker

Public Health, Innovation And Intellectual Property Rights

"Today, an independent Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health presents its report to the World Health Organization. The report recommends key actions needed to ensure that poor people in developing countries have access to existing and new products to diagnose, treat and prevent the diseases which affect them most. Over half of the people in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia lack regular access to existing essential medicines because they cannot afford them, or because the health system in their country is too weak. Apart from access to existing medicines, some health products specifically for diseases which disproportionately affect developing countries are simply not developed at all due to the lack of a sustainable market. The relationship between intellectual property rights, innovation and public health has been at the heart of debate on these issues."
Source: Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health
Summary||| Direct to Full Text (PDF) ||| FAQ

Originally posted by ResourceShelf's DocuTicker

Consultations in Medicare: Coding and Reimbursement (PDF; 744 KB)

"This report found that in 2001, Medicare allowed $1.1 billion in improper payments for services billed as consultations. Medicare allowed approximately $191 million more than should have been allowed for services that were billed as consultations, but did not meet Medicare's definition of a consultation. Medicare and its beneficiaries overpaid an additional $613 million for consultations that were billed as the incorrect type or level of complexity and $260 million for undocumented consultations. Consultations billed at the highest billing level (the most complex services, which generate the highest reimbursements under the Medicare physician fee schedule) and follow-up inpatient consultations were particularly problematic; approximately 95 percent of each were miscoded or undocumented."
Source: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General
Originally posted by ResourceShelf's DocuTicker

New Biomedical Search Enine GoPubMed

The intelligent search engine for biomedical specialists
"GoPubMed gives search engines a new pulse by allowing searches for biomedical publications
“GoPubMed is a sort of an intelligent Google for biomedical specialists,” explains Dr Michael Alvers, CEO and Co-founder of Transinsight. “The search engine saves time and so accelerates research significantly."

"Founded in November 2005, Transinsight is a software company focused on the life sciences that provides products and solutions for intelligent search technologies. Their main product, GoPubMed, was partly developed during the IST project, Biogrid, by Professor Michael Schroeder and his research team from the Biotechnology Centre at the Technical University of Dresden."

Solutions to [Nursing] Faculty Shortage

American Association of Colleges of Nursing Doctoral Forum: Solutions to Faculty Shortage
PowerPoint briefing includes statistics, etc.
Source: Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions
See also: Nursing Shortage Counties

Originally Posted by ResourceShelf's DocuTicker

U.S. Tuberculosis cases at an all-time low in 2005, but drug resistance increasing

"The latest national surveillance data show that tuberculosis (TB) rates reached an all-time low in the United States in 2005, but progress to eliminate TB is slowing.1 Furthermore, the increasing occurrence of drug-resistant TB, including extensively drug-resistant cases, presents significant challenges to treatment and control of the disease both in the United States and abroad."
Source: CDC

Originally posted by ResourceShelf's DocuTicker

Accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis: systematic review

"Our results suggest that magnetic resonance imaging is a relatively poor test for both ruling in and ruling out multiple sclerosis. In clinical practice a false positive diagnosis of multiple sclerosis is potentially more dangerous than a false negative one because it implies unnecessary successive tests and treatments, or needless anxiety and psychological distress for the patient."
Source: British Medical Journal
(PDF; 147 KB)

Originally Posted By ResourceShelf's DocuTicker

Finding a Home for Unwanted Equipment

"Every day, in healthcare facilities around the world, medical technology professionals are asked to make decisions about how to properly dispose of unwanted medical equipment. In this article, technicians, engineers, and manufacturers provide guidance on disposal options and what factors you should take into consideration when recycling, donating, or selling equipment."
Source: Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology
(PDF; 704 KB)

Originally Posted by ResourceShelf's DocuTicker

Images of Aging in America 2004

"The facts and fallacies of growing old are scrutinized in this AARP/University of Southern California study of how much adult Americans know - or think they know - about aging. While the people surveyed are moderately knowledgeable, the study found that many still have misconceptions about aging and older people."
Source: AARP/USC
Direct to Full Text (198 pages; PDF)

Originally Posted by ResourceShelf's DocuTicker