Healthcare Reform

Everyone knows that the healthcare system needs reform. And yet I see this weird trend where people are still not getting it, and once again being swayed by the spin machinery.

Also, the messaging on healthcare reform is not clear at best, and confusing at worst. Most messaging I see coming out of the White House groups all the issues together under the Healthcare Reform umbrella. My suggestion is to begin to separate out the 2 core issues being addressed: 1) healthcare for all 2) bringing down the price of healthcare. And then explain to the American people how each is being addressed. The American people need to understand that these 2 issues, though connected, need to be addressed with a separate set of solutions. Bottom line, simplify the message and beef it with more hard facts on how the change is going to happen, and less on political talking-point blather.

So here's my attempt to sort out the facts from the noise and spin:

Spin (what the insurance industry and supporters are saying\doing):

• Research Firm Cited by GOP Is Owned by Health Insurer
• Freedoms you will lose under proposed health reform plan: http://finance.yahoo.com/insurance/article/107408/5-freedoms-you-would-lose-in-health-care-reform.html?mod=insurance-health
• Heritage Org's 10 reasons why proposed health care reform sucks: http://www.heritage.org/Press/FactSheet/fs0036.cfm

Anti-Spin (what others are saying):

• Business Week article on insurance companies "purging" (dropping) small businesses: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/aug2009/sb2009087_865725.htm
• Excellent (as always) Bill Moyers program on health care reform. Moyers interviews a former Health Insurance industry VP who is now retired and on the side of ordinary citizens to expose the corruption and crookedness of the health insurance industry. A MUST watch: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07312009/watch_excl.html

Mythbusting:

• Factcheck.org fact checks "Guv'mint is out to kill seniors": http://www.factcheck.org/2009/07/false-euthanasia-claims/
• AARP Responds to Health Reform Scare Tactics :http://www.aarp.org/aarp/presscenter/pressrelease/articles/mccaughey_statement.html
• The medical malpractice myth: http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/fall05/html/disc_myth.php

Facts:

• Rising premiums:
  • http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/54522.php
  • http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml
• The full bill: http://help.senate.gov/BAI09A84_xml.pdf(615 pages of terrific soporific reading)
• AMA announces it supports health-care reform: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/ama-affirms-support.shtml
• AMA's FAQ on HR 3200: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/399/hsr-hr3200-faqs.pdf
• A summary from the House Committee on Education and Labor: http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BILLSUMMARY-071409.pdf
• St. Petersburg newspaper's fact checking: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/jul/30/e-mail-analysis-health-bill-needs-check-/
• KFF report on health-care and the middle class: http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7951.pdfInteresting point here is that 70% or so of those insured are via employer-provided insurance. I wonder what those numbers are now with unemployment at 9.4%?
• "Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis---and the People Who Pay the Price" by Jonathan Cohn