Atul Gawande is the best medical writer I have encountered. He is such because his approach strictly practicable and scientific but also accessible and human. He can make complex medical items and the practice of medicine easier to understand.
Ina recent New Yorker article, he brings those same qualities to an analysis of the cost of health care and the attempt to bring down costs.
Read this article if you want some straight talk about pissible solutions but don't read it if you are looking for political scoring points or to advance a particular ideology.
5 comments:
A non-ideological writer? This is the New Yorker! Along the way, Gawande has worked for Gary Hart, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton. Gwande's"practical" approach is the left's current way of disguising their ideology, even as Obama described his politics as moving beyond left and right. What it amounts to is a greater "partnership" between the government and free enterprise. Not a prescription that I'm impressed with. Ah, well.
Did you read the article? I found it interesting at the very least.
You are right about the New Yorker usually having an ideological slant, no doubt. My first exposure to the New Yorker was way back in the early eighties when they published these enormously long boring articles touting the nuclear freeze movement! Yeah that had alot to do with the wall coming down! But I read it now pretty regularly ... and enjoy it.
Gawande is good. On nonpolitical stuff as well like being a doctor, the science of medicine etc.
If the recent debate on health care has taught us anything...it's that the consumer is not in the driver's seat on this.
Drug Companies, Insurance companies, Hospitals, and doctors...the ones that set the pricing for medical care...all have their high paid lobbyist prowling the halls of congress, dishing promises of golf outings, campaign contributions, future employment and other goodies to the hungry members of congress.
As long as money is being waved in front of our elected representatives...don't expect them to pay much attention to voters. After all even elections are won by slick ads that cost money...so follow the money , right?
My wife and I have found a solution that seems to work for us...
Health care beyond America's borders.
With medical costs a fraction of what the health care industry charges us in the US, we've found excellent affordable health care in Thailand, of all places..even without insurance.
To woo the cash strapped and weary American uninsured and underinsured, The Thais (and Indians, Malaysian, and Singaporeans) have built excellent private hospital system that provide top notch care for a fraction of the costs in the US.
These hospitals are accredited and follow the same standards as in the US. In fact they outperform US hospitals in service and care.
Yet you can expect to pay 1/10th to 1/20th what it cost for the same procedure in the US.
Heart Bypass...US $150,000.
Hear Bypass..Thailand $15,000
My minor throat surgery for disphagia...US $2500
Thailand $100.
(That was 1 year ago today and I am back in the US... very much alive.)
In fact in Thailand most people have no use for health insurance. Prices are so affordable that Thais would rather save the insurance premiums and bank it.
While we in the US get hit twice....once by the insurance company...and the second time by the medical profession. So we pay twice for health care.
And don't think that you are safe with insurance in America. Check your insurance policy for hidden costs like deductibles, copays and insurance caps and you will be shocked to find that health care coverage is VERY LIMITED
The US health care system is a train wreck hurtling down the mountainside with NO hope that anything...even the health care proposals in Congress can fix.
As long as the people who stand to gain the most profit from health care are calling the shots...people who rely on the US health care system are SCREWED.
And here's the rub. People would like you to believe that the American health care system is a free market system driven by competition.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
A few giants control the insurance industry and a few medical associations strive to keep competition from putting downward pressure on compensation.
Like... when was the last time you saw a hospital post it's rates like a restaurant posts it's dinner prices???
When was the last time you saw a physician run a TV advertisement offering lower cost medical care like every hotel, car dealer, grocery chain, clothing store, bicycle shop, and fast food outlet in the United States?
Freemarket and competition...my foot!
Actually, I think I was a bit "touchy" in my response. I read it, and recognize its appeal, though I think it's still disingenous. (As for the farming, well, that got better the same time we started building autos and farm equipment, but I'm not expert)
About once a year, when at an inn on Lake Michigan, I read a stack of New Yorkers while sitting on the beach. . . and I count it as a minor guilty pleasure. But, I highly recommend Tom Wolfe's book "Hooking Up," which, among the splendid essays, includes one called "Tiny Mummies," which makes merciles fun of the New Yorker and helps cleanse the pallete.
And, I like what Norris has to say.
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