A Second Opinion

A Second Opinion

Author: Arnold Relman

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2007-08-05

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1586485822

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Dr. Arnold Relman, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of The New England Journal of Medicine brings together sixty years of experience in medicine in a book that holds the keys to a new structure for healthcare based on voluntary private contracts between individuals and not-for-profit, multi-specialty groups of physicians. Timely, provocative, and newly updated, A Second Opinion is a clarion call to action. If we heed Dr. Relman's plan, Americans could at last achieve a lasting, sensible solution to national healthcare.


The Politics of Medicare

The Politics of Medicare

Author: Theodore R. R. Marmor

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1351476920

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

On July 30, 1965, President Johnson flew to Independence, Missouri to sign the Medicare bill. The new statute included two related insurance programs to finance substantial portions of the hospital and physician expenses incurred by Americans over the age of sixty-five. Public attempts to improve American health standards have typically precipitated bitter debate, even as the issue has shifted from the professional and legal status of physicians to the availability of hospital care and public health programs. In The Politics of Medicare, Marmor helps the reader understand Medicare's origins, and he interprets the history of the program and explores what happened to Medicare politically as it turned from a legislative act in the mid-1960s to a major program of American government in the three decades since. This is a vibrant study of an important piece of legislation that asks and answers several questions: How could the American political system yield a policy that simultaneously appeased anti-governmental biases and used the federal government to provide a major entitlement? How was the American Medical Association legally overcome yet placated enough to participate in the program? And how did the Medicare law emerge so enlarged from earlier proposals that themselves had caused so much controversy?


Inside National Health Reform

Inside National Health Reform

Author: John E. McDonough

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2012-09-03

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0520274520

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A guide to the Affordable Care Act, our new national health care law. An account of the process from the 2008 presidential campaign to the moment in 2010 when the bill was signed into law before anyone had a chance to digest the document. At a time when the nation is taking a second look at the ACA, "Inside National Health Reform" provides essential information for Americans to review the governmental processes and politics in enacting this legislation.


Who Should Pay for Medicare?

Who Should Pay for Medicare?

Author: Daniel Shaviro

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2004-03-06

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0226750760

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Good news first? The good news is that Americans today are living longer, in part because of continual advances in healthcare. But the bad news is that with our aging population larger than ever before, nothing is being done to ensure that we can continue to afford the increasing costs of care. How Medicare—with the Bush administration's reforms and a slumping economy—will meet the needs of its recipients without adequate financing is among the most pressing issues facing this country today. Daniel N. Shaviro sees the future of our national healthcare system as hinging on the issue of funding. The author of books on the economic issues surrounding Social Security and budget deficits, Shaviro is a skilled guide for anyone seeking to understand the financial aspects of government programs. Who Should Pay for Medicare? offers an accessible overview of how Medicare operates as a fiscal system. Discussions of Medicare reform often focus on the expansion of program treatment choices but not on the question of who should pay for Medicare's services. Shaviro's book addresses this critical issue, examining the underanalyzed dynamics of the significant funding gap facing Medicare. He gives a balanced, nonpartisan evaluation of various reform alternatives—considering everything from the creation of new benefits in this fiscal crunch to tax cuts to the demographic pressures we face and the issues this will raise when future generations have to pay for the care of today's seniors. Who Should Pay for Medicare? speaks to seniors who feel entitled to expanded coverage, younger people who wonder what to expect from the government when they retire, and Washington policy makers who need an indispensable guidebook to Medicare's future.


Health-Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination

Health-Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-04-02

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 030946921X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.


Rx for Health Care Reform

Rx for Health Care Reform

Author: Ken Terry

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this readable and well-researched book, Ken Terry analyzes the current state of health care reform and finds it wanting. Instead of tackling the core problems in our failing system, he argues, politicians, insurance executives, and health care leaders have embraced ideologically driven initiatives that pursue impractical objectives or will take too long to bear fruit. Among these are such widely hailed trends as disease management, pay for performance, cost and price ìtransparency, î consumer-directed care, and health information technology, none of which will reverse the rising tide of health spending. What is creating this nightmare scenario, according to Terry, is the sheer profitability of the health care industry. Insurers, physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and device manufacturers are all striving to maximize their profits, and there is no effective competition or regulation to restrain them. Only a complete overhaul of our system for financing and delivering health care can get us out of this mess, the author maintains. In the second half of his book, he presents a bold vision of how to do this: First, he says, all primary care physicians should join group practices that are large enough to take financial responsibility for professional services. And second, competition among those physician groups, based on cost and quality, should replace competition among health plans. There should be only one government-regulated insurer per region, he says, and it should have no role in managing care.


The Battle Over Health Care

The Battle Over Health Care

Author: Rosemary Gibson

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2012-04-08

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1442214511

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As the most substantial health care reform in almost half a century, President Obama's health care overhaul was as historic as it was divisive. In its aftermath, the debate continues. Drawing on decades of experience in health care policy, health care delivery reform, and economics, Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh provide a non-partisan analysis of the reform and what it means for America and its future. The authors shine a light on truths that have been hidden behind a raucous debate marred by political correctness on both sides of the aisle. They show how health care reform was enacted only with the consent of health insurance companies, drug firms, device manufacturers, hospitals, and other special interests that comprise the medical-industrial complex, which gained millions of new customers with the stroke of a pen. Health care businesses in a market-oriented system are designed to generate revenue, which runs counter to affordable health care. Gibson and Singh take a broader perspective on health care reform not as a single issue but as part of the economic life of the nation. The national debate unfolded while the banking and financial system teetered on the brink of collapse. The authors trace uncanny similarities between the health care industry and the unfettered banking and financial sector. They argue that a fast-changing global economy will have profound implications for the country's economic security and the jobs and health care benefits that come with it, and they predict that global competition will shape the future of employer-provided insurance more than the health care reform law.


Healthcare Beyond Reform

Healthcare Beyond Reform

Author: Joe Flower

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2012-04-24

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1466511214

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

There is a secret inside healthcare, and it’s this: We can do healthcare for a lot less money. The only way to do that is to do it a lot better. We know it’s possible because it is happening now. In pockets and branches across healthcare, people are receiving better healthcare for a lot less. Some employers, states, tribes, and health systems are doing healthcare a little differently. Healthcare Beyond Reform: Doing It Right for Half the Cost explains how this new kind of healthcare is not about rationing and cutbacks. It’s not about getting less, it’s about getting more. Getting better and friendlier healthcare, where you need it, when you need it. How? The answer is mostly not in Washington, it’s not conservative or liberal. The answer is mostly not about who pays for healthcare. The answer is mostly about who gets paid, and what we pay them for. Healthcare Beyond Reform: Doing It Right For Half The Cost shows you how the system works. It explains how we got here, why we pay so much more than anyone else, and why we don’t get what we pay for. You’ll learn the five things healthcare can do to turn this around. You will see what some employers are already doing to make that happen, and what patients, families, doctors, and anyone else who cares about healthcare can do to help make it happen. There are only five and we need all five. All of them can be done right now, with the current healthcare system as it is. Joe Flower shows you how. In 1980, healthcare took no more of a bite out of the U.S. economy than it did in other developed countries. By 2000, healthcare cost twice as much in the U.S. as in most other developed countries. We can change that. —Joe Flower Joe Flower explains how we can make healthcare better for a lot less. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKvvf5SIS4Y&feature=youtu.be