The non-negotiable criteria for a single payer plan

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Friday December 01, 2006 · 7:34 AM PST

2006/12/01 · 07:34

In light of DrSteveB's stupendous diary on single payer, I want to interject some vital points. Since last April I've been blogging on Daily Kos about single payer health care, talking about the features of Health Security America, a plan that has become obvious to me after 40 years as a physician and administrator. I'm not wedded to the plan; in fact, I believe that we must unite or lose.

DrSteveB does a great job explaining Conyers' bill and what we need to do, and he is right that "mechanisms and details do matter." I'm here to add more details, in the form of 5 non-negotiable criteria that will ensure a healthy single payer program. Make the jump—

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The government should

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The government should

Administer every aspect of a national health plan

5 votes

Delegate administration to an elected, accountable citizen body

10 votes

Health Care Reformers: Unite or Lose

fredb

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Friday October 27, 2006 · 5:38 AM PDT

2006/10/27 · 05:38

The basic debate about single payer and whether we want it is over, and the only voices telling us that we do not want it belong to entrenched special interest groups. Reformers need to pull together, coordinate efforts and combine strengths, and the sooner the better. Special interests have been well organized for a long time. Now it's our turn to unite or lose. Read More

Retired doctor: what patients can do to lower health insurance premiums

fredb

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Friday May 12, 2006 · 5:21 AM PDT

2006/05/12 · 05:21

Jenny works at a Burger King and has no health care coverage. Her front teeth have decayed into brown stubs. She is forced to choose between her teeth and her children's occasional medical care. Meanwhile John, a businessman, does have insurance, and opts to take a $60 per month antihypertensive drug before even trying to lose a modest amount of weight to ease his hypertension. Jenny and John are both working Americans. What is wrong with this snapshot?

Does an insured patient have a responsibility to spend health care dollars wisely? I think so, and want to discuss ways in which wise spending and good lifestyle habits play an important part in my health care reform plan, Health Security America. Along with taking an active part in an independent single payer administration, taking greater care with our own lifestyle is a key way in which we citizens can take back our health care.

Please make the jump and find out how.
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Cutting health insurance premiums by optimizing hospital use

fredb

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 03, 2006 · 5:27 AM PDT

2006/05/03 · 05:27

Wally, who is being given a neurological and cardiac workup following a car accident, is staying in a step-down unit in a private room. He has 24-hour room service, and his family has access to broadband internet in the unit's lounges. The hospital, one of two in a city of 60,000, stretches like a vast nautilus along the shores of a lake, from a tiny brick structure dating back to 1907 at one end, to an enormous new wing built in the 1990s. The hospital, part of a large clinic system, strives to be all things to everyone, from trauma to cardiac care to neurology, in spite of an excellent neurology department in the town's other hospital. The hospital bombards its public with glossy flyers, billboards and nightly television ads, striving to dominate the little town's health care market as surely as it dominates the lakeshore.

Meanwhile, Wally, who is uninsured, contemplates divorcing his wife of fifty years in order to save some of his family's assets. The dunning letters will come.

Follow along past the jump for the sixth diary in a series about Health Security America.
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Health Security America: Howard Unbound

fredb

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Saturday April 29, 2006 · 5:47 AM PDT

2006/04/29 · 05:47

In an effort to find a feasible solution to the health care crisis I posted my first diary, Retired M.D. & HMO administrator speaks out, and met a wonderful reception, thanks to you.

I've also explained why a new universal health care system must have an independent administration in order to short circuit K Street. I've shown you the blueprint for just such an independent administration, and I've laid down the eight inviolable rules that ensure that health care system's success.

That's my plan, Health Security America, and it is building up a head of steam. Wisconsin's largest congressional district adopted our resolution modeled on Health Security America last weekend, and our effort is attracting quite a bit of media publicity--allies, too.

There's much more about the projected savings below.
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Breaking the special interest hammerlock on health care

fredb

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Monday April 24, 2006 · 5:13 AM PDT

2006/04/24 · 05:13

In an effort to find a pragmatic, feasible solution to the health care crisis I posted my first diary, Retired M.D. & HMO administrator speaks out, and met a wonderful reception, thanks to you. I posted a second and third diary outlining why and how we must proceed.

I introduced myself in part by saying that my colleagues and I, through managed care, as much as waged war on our local health care distribution system. We closed out competition and tried to corral our patients. This kind of health care feudalism has to stop if we are to implement a sound single payer health care system. This fourth diary shows you the second step of two that the Health Security America plan will take. Step #2: Breaking the lock on health care distribution with 8 inviolable rules.
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Health Security America: People-powered health care

fredb

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday April 20, 2006 · 5:10 AM PDT

2006/04/20 · 05:10

My first diary, Retired M.D. & HMO administrator speaks out, outlined the three mandates to a new single-payer health care plan: 1. birth to death health care insurance, 2. free health insurance to nineteen years and 3. that it be self-funded and that all governance be done by citizens. The second diary, Health Security America: kicking the donkey, outlined why it is necessary to have citizens do such things as determine premiums and coverage (that is, to wrest control of health care out of the hands of special interests and put them directly into the hands of citizens).

This third diary shows you the first step of two that that Health Security America plan will take. Step #1: setting up a governance structure.
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Health Security America: Kicking the donkey

fredb

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday April 18, 2006 · 6:08 AM PDT

2006/04/18 · 06:08

Last Friday, thanks to your warm reception, your recommendations and our mutual concern, my debut as a diarist, Retired M.D. & HMO administrator speaks out, made a splash. In it, I asked you to imagine an America in which people didn't live in fear of illness and bankruptcy or have to beg for health care. I laid down the three mandates of my health care reform plan, Health Security America, and I talked a little about my background as a family practitioner and HMO/clinic administrator. I finished by promising to talk more about why participant-paid premiums in a single payer plan are necessary, and how the Democrats' so-called plan is a roadmap to nowhere, and what you can do.

In homage to Kos' Crashing the Gates ad, I'd like to dub this series "Kicking the Donkey," because that is absolutely how we have to start. Please make the jump with me for more.
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Retired M.D. & HMO administrator speaks out

fredb

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 14, 2006 · 5:52 AM PDT

2006/04/14 · 05:52

Imagine an America in which a quarter of the monthly paycheck doesn't go for health insurance, and where no catastrophic illness burns through private coverage, bankrupting people just trying to play by the rules. In that America, people see their own doctors, and no hospital's main reason for being is as a profit mill. Children's parents never see a bill, and no one ever sees a morass of paperwork. Everyone, young and old, sick and healthy, shares the health care burden, and because of it, the burden is made lighter. Imagine an America with that kind of security, and think about the America we have now.

Do you feel the defect?

Make the jump with me below the fold for some ideas on how to fix it. Read More

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