As I watched the press conference last night with my twenty-year old daughter, we marveled at how articulate and smart President Obama is, especially when we compare the spectacle of his press conference to what we suffered through rarely, albeit, with Bush, Jr. No one ever pressed Bush like Obama was pressed by reporters last night. Why is it that Bush silenced the press so and now suddenly we are asking for Obama accountability? There is an element of "truthiness" in Obama that somehow makes us feel smarter ourselves.
Being in the midst of a health care dilemma myself, I support a single-payer system with private options for those rich folks who want another level of health care. My husband and I were solicited last year, before the sky fell in, with a boutique medical plan: no insurance would be allowed, we would pay a premium to have access to a cadre of doctors immediately without waiting. We turned it down then, and I would turn it down now, too.
On one level we need to continue to fund research in medicine. The advances in cancer and heart disease are spectacular. The understanding of human fertility, genetic conditions, immune-deficient disease, well, it's inconceivable how much information has been amassed. The technology is also pretty phenomenal, too. The issue raised by this technology was well stated by Mike Dowling, the President and CEO of North Shore LIJ Health Systems, the largest health care provider on Long Island. At a luncheon several years ago for the Health and Welfare Council, Dowling described the new body scan machine that the hospital had purchased. This procedure could "see" inside the body, find blocked arteries, almost any abnormality, way beyond the PetScan, which only finds cluster of cancer cells once they reach about 1 cm. in size. The question raised by this advanced technology is: do we have the resources to treat all of the conditions such a body scan might reveal? Do we need to?
Where we haven't advanced is matching the diagnosis and treatment with the best practices. And let's not fool ourselves: most people have to wait uncomfortably long periods of time to see doctors, get a diagnosis, and begin treatment. So all of this crap about health care reform meaning rationed health care is bull. Here on Long Island, many board certified doctors don't take any insurance. You pay the doctor directly and then fight with the insurance company. If you are in an HMO, forget it. You have to go to less qualified physicians, when a more experienced doctor might provide a better outcome.
Here is a transcript of the press conference last night.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment