Minnesota poor suffer disparity in medical care, study confirms - TwinCities.com: "While doctors might be providing preferential treatment to privately insured patients, several other factors likely contribute to the disparities. English language and transportation barriers can make it harder for publicly funded
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patients to show up for screenings. Limited income makes it harder for them to afford healthy diets and to control their blood sugar and blood pressure. That penalizes clinics that are measured on the health of their diabetic patients."
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Majority Favor Medicare For All
See slide 13 in the presentation.
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Comments from Kip Sullivan:
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reported a poll recently which indicates 74% of Americans support adding the nonelderly to Medicare. The poll asked people if they "favor" any of six options, including "expanding Medicare to people under 65." Seventy-four percent said they favor this option. The poll was reported by KFF in Figure 13 in a February 2008 "tutorial" entitled "Public opinion: Health care and election '08" http://www.kaiseredu.org:80/tutorials/hcelection08/player.htmlIt is not clear from the slide whether the slide lists the actual questions or abbreviated forms of the questions. I can't tell from the small print on the slide who conducted the poll. It was probably KFF; they do a ton of polling. I have sent KFF an email asking them to send me the questions used in that poll. One of the other five options asked about was described simply as "national single-payer plan." Only 37% said they favor that option. That phrase probably means nothing to most people. "Expanding Medicare to people under 65" and the other four options (for example, "tax credits for business") were very clear. If we combine the results of this KFF poll with the results of the AP-Yahoo poll reported last January (conducted in the last week of 2007), we get a clear picture of how the wording of poll questions influences the outcomes. Here again are the AP-Yahoo questions and the results: "The United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers." 65% said yes.
"Do you consider yourself a supporter of a single-payer health care system, that is a national health plan financed by taxpayers in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan, or not?" 54% said yes, 44% said no. Conclusion: The clearer the question is, the greater the support for single-payer. To sum up: * if you just ask people if they support "a national single-payer plan," and you don't give them any details about what that means, 37% will say yes. * if you ask people if they support "a single-payer health care system," and you give them just a few rather abstract details, 54% say yes. * if you ask people if they support a Medicare-for-all system, and you say it will be "run by the government and financed by taxpayers," 65% say yes. * if you ask people if they support "expanding Medicare to people under 65," and you don't mention taxes and "government," 74% will say yes.
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Comments from Kip Sullivan:
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reported a poll recently which indicates 74% of Americans support adding the nonelderly to Medicare. The poll asked people if they "favor" any of six options, including "expanding Medicare to people under 65." Seventy-four percent said they favor this option. The poll was reported by KFF in Figure 13 in a February 2008 "tutorial" entitled "Public opinion: Health care and election '08" http://www.kaiseredu.org:80/tutorials/hcelection08/player.htmlIt is not clear from the slide whether the slide lists the actual questions or abbreviated forms of the questions. I can't tell from the small print on the slide who conducted the poll. It was probably KFF; they do a ton of polling. I have sent KFF an email asking them to send me the questions used in that poll. One of the other five options asked about was described simply as "national single-payer plan." Only 37% said they favor that option. That phrase probably means nothing to most people. "Expanding Medicare to people under 65" and the other four options (for example, "tax credits for business") were very clear. If we combine the results of this KFF poll with the results of the AP-Yahoo poll reported last January (conducted in the last week of 2007), we get a clear picture of how the wording of poll questions influences the outcomes. Here again are the AP-Yahoo questions and the results: "The United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers." 65% said yes.
"Do you consider yourself a supporter of a single-payer health care system, that is a national health plan financed by taxpayers in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan, or not?" 54% said yes, 44% said no. Conclusion: The clearer the question is, the greater the support for single-payer. To sum up: * if you just ask people if they support "a national single-payer plan," and you don't give them any details about what that means, 37% will say yes. * if you ask people if they support "a single-payer health care system," and you give them just a few rather abstract details, 54% say yes. * if you ask people if they support a Medicare-for-all system, and you say it will be "run by the government and financed by taxpayers," 65% say yes. * if you ask people if they support "expanding Medicare to people under 65," and you don't mention taxes and "government," 74% will say yes.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Company Doc Makes a Comeback
Minnesota Medical Trends / Companies launching on-site health clinics - TwinCities.com
Might not be a bad idea. What do you think? Not much help if you don't have a job or work for a place too small to even consider this.
Might not be a bad idea. What do you think? Not much help if you don't have a job or work for a place too small to even consider this.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Blues' new health plan locks rate increases for 3 years
Blues' new health plan locks rate increases for 3 years
This article shows that the big managed care companies and insurance companies see the employer as their customer. They have been losing that business more and more since it costs so much. This shifting of the burden to the patient will hurt the sick and those least able to afford it. It creates a downward spiral and it will fail as the HMO experiment has failed. Single payer is the only solution we can afford.
This article shows that the big managed care companies and insurance companies see the employer as their customer. They have been losing that business more and more since it costs so much. This shifting of the burden to the patient will hurt the sick and those least able to afford it. It creates a downward spiral and it will fail as the HMO experiment has failed. Single payer is the only solution we can afford.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Economists say Obama's health plan won't cut costs and McCain's won't lower ranks of uninsured
Economists say Obama's health plan won't cut costs and McCain's won't lower ranks of uninsured
As far as I'm concerned this analysis just helps support the need for a universal single payer system in this country as the only affordable choice.
As far as I'm concerned this analysis just helps support the need for a universal single payer system in this country as the only affordable choice.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Governing: Electronic health records/September 2008
Governing: Electronic health records/September 2008: "In Minnesota, the Department of Finance and Employee Relations is seeking proposals that would put each of the state's 50,000 employees in a secure and portable online personal health portfolio. Once that's accomplished, Governor Tim Pawlenty wants to extend that program to all state residents by 2011."
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