OPRAH "Sick in America: It can happen to you"

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.

Look at all the reponses. There is one from Bakpakr they have it, and found it vasluable, someone else said a disc was recorded from an available recording. You can contact a member privately, to see how you can get it by clicking their user ID. Hopefully you'll get a response. If not, contact the TV station that airs Oprah in your vicinity, and say free recordings were offered, and you want one. Then bring it to your supervisor and ask how your coworkers could use it as a topic for an inservice.........

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The main people scamming the system is the system itself! There are a lot of kinks that have to be worked out. But we have many systems now that are run by the gov. like Medicare that work fairly well. I don't know what we would do without it. Our gov. can run some programs and the idea of states doing it is even better! The point is, something needs to be done, and soon. I have seen many people die because they were on a HMO and never got the right tests until it was too late. This shouldn't happen.

We need universal healthcare, it's not a dirty word.

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A lot of medical students, hopefuls and physicians may balk at universal coverage because they see that their income would be less than it is with private coverage, (and I can understand it to some degree when you are taking 8 years of schooling and will have to pay back 100k-200k in student loans and can't expect to make those big bucks for about another for years after medical school. Then the insurance companies charge such high malpractice premiums that many physicians are drowning in payments. Start from the beginning, have student loan forgiveness or caps on the cost of necessary healthcare education, cap the , some form of tort reorganization is also needed, and look at ways to reallocate taxes that the government is already receiving. Doctors and nurses in Canada still seem to be living comfortably so while no system is perfect, ours seems to be way off the mark at this point.

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Over 50% of medical students are in favor of a national health plan

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Over 50% of medical students are in favor of a national health plan

So that still leaves a large chunk with concerns and doesn't address premed and physicians. Point?

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.

I think Canadian doctors start out with less of a handicap, in that high interest loans weren't used for their education. However, many medical students in the not too long ago past, saw medicine as a way to make a bundle of money. Canadian doctors knew they wouldn't become millionaires from their job as doctors, and went into the field with a burning desire (well, not 100%) to be of service, with high ethics.

I brought my 14 year old (now 34 years old) to his doctor, and when the doctor asked what he would like to do with his life, my son who is a "people pleaser", said, "I'm thinking of medicine". My head jerked up, as he'd never mentioned that to me, and seemed to view doctors as a necessary evil.

I was bowled over by the doctor's response, "Oh", he said,"there's no money in it anymore". Needless to say, I didn't use that doctor again.

When he finished getting his undergraduate degree, my son still wasn't sure of what he'd do, but did know he wanted to make lots of money. I told him to do that honestly, going into business as that occupation's goal is clearly to make money. He's a stock broker now, making a fortune, but so stressed that he is ill often, has pain and allergies and fears a fall inordinately. His lifestyle is consistent with his income, and he is in constant fear of losing it.

As parents, we do the best we can at the time. He does wash his hands compulsively........

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So that still leaves a large chunk with concerns and doesn't address premed and physicians. Point?

This is the real point:

We disagree with both views. It is unthinkable to label our current system as "highest quality" given its frequent failure to provide such basic services as immunizations or prenatal, primary, and preventive care. Moreover, there is growing concern about quality problems with the care that is provided. Quality problems in the current system include denial of care, discrimination,8 disparities, geographic maldistribution,9 lack of continuity, lack of primary care,10 inadequate or lack of prenatal care,11 failure to provide beneficial prevention,12 substandard/incompetent providers,13 declining patient satisfaction and impersonal care,14,15 iatrogenesis (negligent adverse events),16 diagnostic errors,17 unnecessary procedures/surgery,18 sub-optimal medication prescribing/usage,19 and neglect of quality-of-life/psychosocial issues.20 Our "highest-quality" complacency is especially challenged by insights from two seemingly disparate sources: (1) epidemiologic research based on financial claims databases and (2) industrial quality improvement concepts pioneered in Japan. These two sources converge around the concept of "variations," illuminating widespread differences in clinical practice, further challenging the cost-access-quality trade-off assumption. Data and insights from these two new paradigms demonstrate that better care will actually cost less once improvements are made in care processes and clinical decision making.21,22

Source:

http://www.pnhp.org/publications/a_better_quality_alternative.php

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This is the real point:

We disagree with both views. It is unthinkable to label our current system as "highest quality" given its frequent failure to provide such basic services as immunizations or prenatal, primary, and preventive care. Moreover, there is growing concern about quality problems with the care that is provided. Quality problems in the current system include denial of care, discrimination,8 disparities, geographic maldistribution,9 lack of continuity, lack of primary care,10 inadequate or lack of prenatal care,11 failure to provide beneficial prevention,12 substandard/incompetent providers,13 declining patient satisfaction and impersonal care,14,15 iatrogenesis (negligent adverse events),16 diagnostic errors,17 unnecessary procedures/surgery,18 sub-optimal medication prescribing/usage,19 and neglect of quality-of-life/psychosocial issues.20 Our "highest-quality" complacency is especially challenged by insights from two seemingly disparate sources: (1) epidemiologic research based on financial claims databases and (2) industrial quality improvement concepts pioneered in Japan. These two sources converge around the concept of "variations," illuminating widespread differences in clinical practice, further challenging the cost-access-quality trade-off assumption. Data and insights from these two new paradigms demonstrate that better care will actually cost less once improvements are made in care processes and clinical decision making.21,22

Source:

http://www.pnhp.org/publications/a_better_quality_alternative.php

Then we are in agreement, I merely pointed out certain groups that have concerns and why. If we want to pass any sort of legislation regarding reforming healthcare it is important to understand all of the problems that people have with proposed systems and find ways to solve or alleviate their concerns. This was my point. The above information I agree with but it has little to do with what I was discussing. The whole system needs to be revamped from the ground up including malpractive insurance rates and educational expenses. These things stand to pose a big problem for the future of healthcare in this country if changes aren't made as well.

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if we have the type of care that has been talked about

will all hospital have to be sold to the government

will health care workers be on a pay plan such as va nurses are now

will doctors be employees of government or will they be like a independent contractors can they opt out and be available to private patients only or will they be required to have certain number of free patients

it is one thing to have a show which tugs at your heartstrings but when hard decisions have to be made oprah will be having a program about something else and our dear congress and their lobby friends will be making mincemeat out of us

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With Single Payer the multiple providers remain the same. Private and public, profit and non-profit hospitals, nursing homes, rehab facilities, clinics, doctors, pharmacies, laboratories etc.

But instead of multiple payers we will have a single payer like an improved Medicare.

http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/files/facts_singlepayer_top10.pdf

Watch this compelling video to see the power of CNA/NNOC RNs in action and to learn the problems with compromise healthcare plans like AB 8.

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Specializes in ER.

I'm from Canada, and the system does not work there, do not assume that in comparing government vrs insurance systems that by eliminating the money issue for the consumer that money issues disappear.

Each hospital is given a certain amount of money to run each year, and if it is a bad year they get by without essential staff and equipment. If we have a good year there will absolutley be a cut in funding the next year. The government does not deny services, but they do put you on a waiting list for virtually every procedure you might need, and many die waiting, or get sicker. You can lose your job and go bankrupt waiting as easily as when you have high copays. Waits are long because there is not enough money in the system to provide timely care.

An elderly person suffers an acute injury and needs nursing home care. There is an eighteen month waiting list to get into a nursing home in Nova Scotia. Each hopital deals with this by setting aside a unit to take people waiting for a nursing home. There is even a six month wait to get on the hospital unit. People die and decline because they don't get the stimulation a nursing home provides, hospital nurses give sick patients priority care (as they should).

My uncle needed a cardiac bypass, and after seeing the cardiologist was on the waiting list for 4 months. The cardiologist was too busy to see him again until the surgery. He died the weekend before surgery was scheduled.

My mother needed physiotherapy but the closest office was 90 minutes away, and the waiting list to get in was 6 weeks. She had to move in with relatives so she would be close enough to tolerate the drive, and wait in pain for the 6 weeks.

A September 2007 newspaper article talked about a 29yo female who suffered a brain injury four years ago, and is still waiting to get into rehab. (The article requires payment the link, sorry)

In the Canadian system money still rules, and long wait lists weed out lots of patients. It is illegal to set up private care that would give the rich an advantage. If borrowing or selling would save a loved one's life I'd do it, but I wish we had that option.

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The long waits are a huge issue, but it isn't like there aren't waits in the American system. I just got health insurance over the summer because I was experiencing some problems. It took a month to get in to see anyone, meanwhile I was having palpitations, a resting HR of 120-130's (nowhere near my norm), BP 180/120 (again I don't have HTN ), dizziness and the list continues. After a summer full of testing I found out that I have Graves disease and a suspicious nodule on my thyroid that needs to be investigated due to the possibility of cancer. I found this out almost 1 month ago and must wait until late October to get in to see an endo and it was the ONLY endo with an appointment available in a 3 city metro area. So I am waiting 2 months to have a biopsy. Now the waits could be far longer in Canada but it isn't like there aren't waits here as well, not to mention the insurance hold up while they decide how they are going to get out of paying a claim. There are many people who die waiting here because they are fighting with insurance companies to get them to do what they are supposed to do. Or the people who have no relief in sight because they have no insurance and are required to pay upfront 200-300 dollars to see a doctor who may not be able to tell them anything useful without further testing for which they don't have the money. No system is perfect, but what we have is no longer just broken, it is shattered.

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