Organizing for America | Gasping American's Blog

Community Blogs

Gasping American's Blog

View Full Profile »

About The Author...

Gasping American (Chicago, IL)

« Hide Full Profile

User Profile

User:

Name:

What about the employees in healthcare? Will changes lead to less motivation for and in the field?

Looking for Quality vs. Spreading Thin

By Gasping American - Mar 6th, 2008 at 9:22 pm EST

What do people think about these healthcare ideas? Comment/vote please.

1. Maintain quality care by rewarding the employees
I must say that a fair share of employees in hospitals are not rewarded based on their knowledge and utility while the big guys (CEOs) at top take home 1 million dollar paychecks. To improve this, do what the British did in their two tier system. Doctors have set minimum salary and maximum work hours. Their doctors are healthier and ready to work with patients. They aren't overworked like some of the "residents" that took care of me, which I am still grateful for.

2. Cut off service to those who don't value their own health
A lot of Americans care about their health, but let's be honest, not every single one of the 47 million do or even the ones with insurance plans. If they are not going to get their BP checked on a regular basis, why should they get something for free. They don't care while my hard earned tax dollars go towards them. Helping out those who don't have anything is FAR different than helping people who don't care about themselves. Let's make that distinction EXTREMELY clear in policy. Otherwise, we will surely run out of money in this system.

3. Ration care
Similar to point #2, you can't make demand infinite because supply is not. And I don't think that anesthetists, surgeons, etc. like the idea of cutting costs and I wouldn't as a patient want them to be marginalized to meet budgets. Their performance will suffer because every job even their jobs need an incentive. We see that with industrial workers, fast food workers, etc. The same philosophy applies to them. So let them care for people who have a shot at life, not the 75 year old who has multiple diseases that will not gain much from additional tests and procedures. I'm sorry but the old people in this country are going to have to realize this as in ALL other socialized systems.

4. People should get what they pay for
If you make all the healthy people and chronically sick and poor people choose a plan, the healthy people will end up in one pool while the sick will end up in the other. Then obviously the sick funds will get used up quicker because healthy people are not going to fork over thousands more to take care of the sick. Does it make sense for me to pay more for someone else? That is not American. Let everyone put it their fair share, rich or poor, based on their health care needs. Welfare programs are not a good solution if applied broadly and don't take individual cases into account.

5. Make insurance companies accountable for their product.
We make Microsoft and other companies stand behind their product. Why not Aetna or Humana? They deny claims even when doctors think the procedure is crucial. They should only have access to data such as someone's non-compliance history and then base the rates of that. When you get car insurance, they base that on your driving record. How responsible you are determines your rate. Let the same philosophy drive healthcare because the the responsible ones will be rewarded and the lazy ones will have to pay more to cover their lack of responsibility regardless of income.

6. Nationalized healthcare database
If I was knocked out completely, then doctors would have no idea if I was allergic to something or my heart functioned well or if I had a test done at X hospital a couple weeks ago. It avoids repeating big tests and could make for quicker treatment and less paperwork. People hate the idea of Big Brother but this is where dollars can be saved. A lot of other countries have it and avoid wasting time getting my consent to have records from some other hospital sent to the one I was at.

7. Reduce the burden of education on health employees
I have a nephew who was thinking about going into medical school. But from the bad news of malpractice and dropping salaries, he feels that long years and debt might leave him playing the catch-up game. He stated frankly that why invest into something that is not going to let me control my future and set my goals for me.

8. Employees should have unions
From what I have looked up, I was very surprised that they don't have unions. Everybody else does so why don't they. No wonder insurance companies run the show. The nurses and docs have no voice of their own. What's stopping them? Those guys in England strike and so do the French. Seems a good balancing act.

9. Take away the malpractice lawyers
I think docs are afraid to be completely straight with patients because they fear litigation. I would like them to be out in the open about everything with me, but the current legal climate keeps them "refrained" at least here in Illinois. One resident said to me frankly we need the stomach doc on board because if something bad happens, people will question why didn't someone who knows more about get on board before it all happened. Very interesting perspective.

Mail to a Friend | Link | Comments (0) | Report Objectionable Content

Posts

Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.