http://covertrationingblog.com Healthcare rationing in America Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:20:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 ©Richard N Fogoros (DrRich) Drrich@covertrationingblog.com (Richard N Fogoros (DrRich)) Drrich@covertrationingblog.com(Richard N Fogoros (DrRich)) healthcare rationing 1440 health care, healthcare, rationing, covert rationing, healthcare rationing, DrRich, medical ethics Healthcare Rationing in America A Podcast About Healthcare Rationing in America Richard N Fogoros (DrRich) Richard N Fogoros (DrRich) Drrich@covertrationingblog.com No no http://covertrationingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/CovertRationingPodcasImg_sm.jpg http://covertrationingblog.com 144 144 http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/the-democrats-have-moved-beyond-trust http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/the-democrats-have-moved-beyond-trust#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:54:47 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1412 http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/the-democrats-have-moved-beyond-trust/feed http://covertrationingblog.com/cardiology-topics/treating-president-obamas-cholesterol http://covertrationingblog.com/cardiology-topics/treating-president-obamas-cholesterol#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:28:49 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1405 http://covertrationingblog.com/cardiology-topics/treating-president-obamas-cholesterol/feed http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/so-now-we-know http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/so-now-we-know#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:47:50 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1400 http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/so-now-we-know/feed 6:32 Here's a Podcast of this post: ____________ A few weeks ago, after the Miracle in Massachusetts, DrRich ruminated on the choice now facing President Obama and the ... Here's a Podcast of this post: ____________ A few weeks ago, after the Miracle in Massachusetts, DrRich ruminated on the choice now facing President Obama and the other leaders of the Democratic Party. Thanks to an outmoded political system that still forces the intellectual elite to risk everything in an election, the teeming, Bible-thumping, gun-toting, pickup-truck-driving, unwashed masses in Massachusetts added an astounding exclamation point to the clear statement that had already been made by the voters of New Jersey and Virginia, by the burgeoning Tea Party movement, and by virtually every national poll that had been taken in the last several months: Mr. President, Stop what you are doing. Many in the President's party have heard the message, and (for those who have not decided yet to "retire"), political instinct tells them it's time to back off. Time to moderate, time to move toward the center. And in more typical times (such as in 1994), that's almost certainly what the Democrats would do when faced with an alienated and angry electorate. Indeed, that's how our system is designed to work. A party overreaches, the voters correct them, and the party moderates and compromises. But these are not typical times. The Obama Presidency (DrRich speculates) represents the culmination of 40 years of intensive effort by the Progressive Movement to place themselves into a position of great political power, in order to (finally) push their agenda to the point of irreversibility. And (in this scenario), placing the healthcare system, once and for all, into the beneficent hands of the federal government is the capstone, the point of no return. It is the act that finally gives the government the legal and moral authority to control most of the economy, and virtually all of the personal decisions made by individuals. (The Progressives do not desire such control for evil purposes, DrRich readily admits. Rather, they need this control because they have discovered a plan to achieve a perfectly harmonious, entirely fair, and everlastingly sustainable society.) DrRich could be wrong, of course, about the President's underlying intent. But he has come to believe that the best way to discover a person's real intentions is to watch what they do, and not what they say. So what will the Democrats do? Will they respond according to the built-in checks and balances of the American system of government, and moderate their healthcare reform plan to achieve as much of their program as they can, while respecting the clearly expressed will of the people (and preserving their own political careers)? Or, after weighing the relatively trivial importance of a mid-term election (and a continued majority in Congress), against their hard-won but rapidly fading, one-and-only opportunity of a lifetime to change America fundamentally and forever, will they double down and press forward against the surging tide, using every political, parliamentary, and who-knows-what-else maneuver at their disposal to get what they want? Which one is it? Say what you will about the uselessness of the Healthcare Summit that the President hosted yesterday, about how it was merely a Kabuki dance, about how it was a duel of platitudes, sob stories and talking points, about how the entire seven hours failed to change the hearts or minds of even a single sentient American. Despite all this, the meeting provided one critical revelation. It came in the President's summation of the meeting. His message: Thanks, Republicans, for showing up. We have now had the public debate I promised all along - and on C-Span, too. It is a shame that, after this debate, you still fail to see the Way, the Truth and the Light. Well, I tried. The fact remains that we won the election (the last one that mattered, at least), and we will act. We will do whatever we need to do to get this bill passed while we still can, and you are not in a position to stop us. And if the Am Healthcare,Reform Richard N Fogoros (DrRich) no No http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/why-efficiency-is-bad-for-health-insurance-companies http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/why-efficiency-is-bad-for-health-insurance-companies#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:50:38 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1393 http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/why-efficiency-is-bad-for-health-insurance-companies/feed http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/health-insurers-to-the-rescue http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/health-insurers-to-the-rescue#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:58:07 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1377 http://covertrationingblog.com/healthcare-reform/health-insurers-to-the-rescue/feed 12:01 Here's a Podcast of this post: ____________ The U.S. Congress, like DrRich, has been distracted from the vital issue of healthcare reform in recent weeks, due to ... Here's a Podcast of this post: ____________ The U.S. Congress, like DrRich, has been distracted from the vital issue of healthcare reform in recent weeks, due to the prospect of elections of one form or another. Which is to say, both of us have been pretty much ignoring the healthcare reform issue in favor of matters that we each found to be far more critical to our own personal interests (Congresspersons: the growing likelihood of being kicked out of office; DrRich: the possibility of winning an iPod). Anyone can understand how DrRich might be distracted by such a prospect. It may be a little harder to understand why the Democrats - who still hold the Presidency, a large majority in the House, and a 59 to 41 majority in the Senate - suddenly seem to be so very disheartened, to the point of virtual paralysis, on healthcare reform. Healthcare reform, after all, is the crowning jewel in their agenda to fundamentally change America as we know it. While President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and a few other stalwarts seem to understand that passing healthcare reform would be worth almost any price that might be extracted by the electorate in November, less principled (and more at-risk) members of Congress, who are apparently less dedicated to a certain ideology than their leaders, apparently see it another way. And so, from all appearances, things appear to have stalled on healthcare reform. But while our political leaders seem willing at this moment to take a breather - either to lick their wounds and regroup, or to celebrate an important tactical victory - one interested party in the healthcare reform wars cannot afford to rest. That would be the health insurance industry. As DrRich has pointed out before, the health insurance industry is the one entity that simply cannot afford to wait. They need healthcare reform now. The health insurance industry has pretty much run out its string. The era in which insurers can increase their market cap by acquiring public assets (i.e., non-profit institutions) for a fraction of their true value, and by making mergers and acquisitions, is pretty much over. For the past few years insurance companies, for the first time, have had to try to make a profit by taking care of sick people.nbsp; They have never done that successfully, and never will. They have tried every underhanded trick imaginable to avoid paying benefits to their subscribers. They have already raised insurance premiums to the very breaking point. But an uncooperative public insists on getting older and sicker, and greedy drug and medical device companies insist on bringing ever-more expensive technologies to the clinic. The insurance industry finds its profit margins (already small) rapidly eroding. The industryrsquo;s business model - taking in inflated insurance premiums, then attempting to withhold medical services - is irreparably broken. As a result, what the health insurance industry needs more than anything else is a graceful exit strategy. And Mr. Obama's healthcare reforms promised them that very thing. (What, exactly, they have been promised is largely a matter of conjecture, but most likely they will take on a role in administering government-funded healthcare, quite possibly assuming the role of a public utility.) Whatever may be the particulars of the "deal" the health insurance industry struck with the reformers, that deal offered them enough to purchase their silence during the entire roiling debate over healthcare reform through the summer, fall and winter. They have stoically (almost cheerfully) accepted their assigned role as "villain" in this set piece, and have silently borne the public "attacks" the President and his soldiers have dutifully launched against them in an effort to drum up support for their reforms. All the nasty things the Democrats have said about them, the industry understands, are necessary components of their last best hope to salvage something serviceable ou... Healthcare,Reform Richard N Fogoros (DrRich) no No http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/let-us-remain-philosophickal-in-defeat http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/let-us-remain-philosophickal-in-defeat#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:25:25 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1366 http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/let-us-remain-philosophickal-in-defeat/feed http://covertrationingblog.com/general-rationing-issues/where_to_find_the_covert_rationing http://covertrationingblog.com/general-rationing-issues/where_to_find_the_covert_rationing#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:00:41 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1344 http://covertrationingblog.com/general-rationing-issues/where_to_find_the_covert_rationing/feed http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/drrich-is-no-bully http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/drrich-is-no-bully#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:58:32 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1337 http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/drrich-is-no-bully/feed http://covertrationingblog.com/wonkonian-rationing/implications-of-the-new-ethics-the-transcendent-importance-of-retainer-medicine http://covertrationingblog.com/wonkonian-rationing/implications-of-the-new-ethics-the-transcendent-importance-of-retainer-medicine#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:55:03 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1305 http://covertrationingblog.com/wonkonian-rationing/implications-of-the-new-ethics-the-transcendent-importance-of-retainer-medicine/feed http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/on-parsimonious-care http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/on-parsimonious-care#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:34:01 +0000 DrRich http://covertrationingblog.com/?p=1289 http://covertrationingblog.com/medical-ethics/on-parsimonious-care/feed