For the fifth anniversary of Massachusetts’ version of the Affordable Healthcare Act, local ABC affiliate WCBV did a pretty good hour-long live panel program, which I hope will be posted online for further discussion eventually. As the host said several times, ‘the health care industry accounts for one in six jobs in Massachusetts‘, so a discussion including the heads of the three biggest local hospitals and of multiple insurance/hmo companies is more than a niche interest in these parts.
One particular surprise, for me, was that Dr. Timothy Johnson, former Medical Editor for ABC, said that ‘single-payer will be coming‘ to the US ‘within five to ten years‘… and none of the CEOs so much as flinched in disagreement. That’s a clip I’d certainly like to post.
Mark S.
Wow!
But as our good friend Sully likes to say, “The math demands it!”
Violet
Speaking of health, I’ve had quite a week. Spent one day last week going with a good friend to the doctor and then the emergency room. Everything turned out okay in the end, but it was scary and exhausting.
Then over the last several days I’ve been dealing with two elderly relatives who have been extremely ill with some kind of food poisoning or stomach bug. We think a bug because one got it and three days later the other did. But very ill older folks you love is never a good thing.
Another doctor’s visit on Friday. I think all I do is care for sick people. I’m exhausted.
mr. whipple
LOL. Not even in 50 years, let alone 5.
WereBear
I think so, too. But in the meantime they will suck as much money out of the system that they can.
Violet
I can see that. If the individual is the “single payer.” You pay the insurance company for insurance. They cover nothing. You pay the doctors and hospitals directly. See, you’re the single payer.
Joseph Nobles
It would take Congress about two weeks to pass a public option plan that meets all the standards developed by HHS for private plans on the exchange. Sure, it would be nice to see it in the works explicitly. But the groundwork for a public option (as well as any future single payer system) is already being done.
Ryan’s plan is whistling past the graveyard.
Beta Magellan
Perhaps by “single payer…in five to ten years” he meant “single payer in Vermont and possibly Oregon.” Romneycare vaulted from Massachusetts to the national stage pretty quickly—if a state-level single-payer system finds success I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar happened. Five years definitely seems too short to me, but ten-twenty seems completely possible.
Also, I’m pretty sure that, post-Obama, a public option will be one of those things that every Democratic presidential candidate will need to promise before getting the nomination.
Elizabelle
Discussing this with an elder and very wise friend: “All the countries in Europe have it. What’s the problem?”
I am hoping Timothy Johnson is right about the 5-10 years.
Medicare for all, and put in a reasonable and humane rationing plan.
stuckinred
@Elizabelle: What’s the chance he knows what he’s talking about compared to all these BJ experts?
WereBear
In a previous thread I brought up the fact that I had a sad story to tell; my own story was not the point. True compassion would be looking ahead and preventing all these sad stories from happening at all.
That’s why President Obama has my complete gratitude for the accomplishment he and his team brought about. Perhaps one day it will only be the sorrow of illness and death… minus the bitterness and anguish of it being preventable.
Comrade Luke
None of the CEOs flinched because it means it will help their bottom line.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see single-payer soon; I just hope that it will be single payer, versus “single payer”.
Elizabelle
@stuckinred:
My friend voted for FDR. She’s seen a lot and still pays close attention. She watches Al Jazeera news — which is carried on a local LA public station. She says we have been through much worse. Also announced 2 months ago “You just can’t talk to anyone who watches Fox News.”
You would like her.
She loathes the internet.
gene108
Speaking of health, my nephrologist upped the times I’m supposed to take one of my meds. Because I took the existing dose faster and finished it before it was supposed to be refilled based on the old scrip. I went to the pharmacy with the new scrip, but apparently my insurance won’t cover it until April 28, because they refilled it whatever number of days before and won’t do it again until April 28.
Anyway, I have the money to pay for it out of pocket, but it is frustrating.
Also, too the pharmacy didn’t order the generic, but the name brand, so I’m paying more and I can’t really wait and tell them to order the generic.
Yeah, the greatest bestest damn health care system in the world.
Also, too I need to lose weight, but have trouble staying motivated. Any suggestions?
gene108
FYWP, I have a comment waiting moderation and didn’t even curse.
stuckinred
@Elizabelle: Cool!
stuckinred
Colbert’s Tweet War on Kyl.
WereBear
I’ve found that motivation wanes when we don’t believe it will actually happen… and so we are “suffering” for nothing.
stuckinred
@WereBear: Calories in calories out. Find some activity you can do consistently and stick with it. My best swims are when I don’t feel like going and I do anyway.
Maude
@gene108:
Try moderation. Deprivation stinks.
I know about the won’t fill until the date. It just makes life harder.
burnspbesq
@gene108:
Two part question, so here’s a two part answer.
On the diet front, identify things that you actually like that are good for you, and eat them.
On the exercise front, find an activity you like doing, and do it. And build up slowly. The hardest day of any exercise program is day 3, when all the muscles you hadn’t been using prior to day 1 are sore as shit.
Be gentle and forgiving with yourself. It took you a long time to build bad habits. Don’t beat yourself up if it takes longer than a week to get good habits locked in.
Which reminds me that I need to get my ass to the gym tonight and have a session with my favorite medieval torture device, the Concept 2 rowing ergometer.
Joe Beese
Also Sprach Krugman:
What odds would you lay on such negotiations taking place?
Just Some Fuckhead
Ooooooh, can we preorder death paneling?
aliasofwestgate
@gene108:
1: Get your doc to phone in a new script with the new dosage on it to your pharmacy. It’s the only way the insurance will allow it to be overridden so you can get it early and only have to pay your usual copay. Otherwise you’re paying full price out of pocket.
The med may not be available in a generic quite yet. I’d ask what it is, but i think we’d both be going FYWP if you do.
and yes, i am a pharm tech in RL.
Just Some Fuckhead
@gene108: Three friends are on the ketosis diet. It really works but they are mighty tired of eating the same foods every day. Who can get tired of eating bacon? Weirdos, all of ’em.
aliasofwestgate
Cripes. I have an answer for gene about the new med he’s got. FYWP. -_-x My comment’s in moderation.
WereBear
@Just Some Fuckhead: It works great, but you aren’t supposed to stay at the “bacon stage” forever.
I’ve been eating low carb for seven years, and love it. But I do cook all the time; it is, however, well worth it. I’m actually eating so much better, and more healthfully, than before.
WereBear
@stuckinred: For me. composition works much better than calories in/calories out. But part of the process is finding what works for our particular bodies and lifestyles.
Anne Laurie
@gene108:
WP also hates the word pharmacy — not to mention casino and roulette, which also tend to get used when discussing the American healthcare industry.
Jebediah
I would like to use this open thread to brag about my big beautiful Otto.
There is a guy who goes to our local Starbucks every Sunday morning with his two little girls. They get some drinks then sit outside playing board games and such. It’s really sweet. This past Sunday was Boggle day, but dad didn’t have enough pens, so he went to his car to look. As soon as he walked away, Otto went over to their table.(He is always on his leash – we were sitting at the next table, within leash distance.) I assumed he was going to scrounge around for crumbs or beg for belly rubs. Nope – he went over and laid down facing away from the girls, and stayed there til Dad came back. So I am sticking with the explanation that Otto decided he was going to guard the girls until their dad came back, because he is The Best Dog Ever.
And since this open thread started with a medical theme, I will say I am not pleased that the mole that was removed last week turned out to be mid-stage invasive melanoma. Sounds bad, but I’m sure it’s no big deal – nothing the free market won’t fix, right?
aliasofwestgate
Gene,
Have your doc call in a new scrip for you with the new amount of times your to take the med. That way the techs will be able to call your insurance and get an override. That can’t do that on the existing scrip as it stands. That way you only pay your usual copay instead of full price.
aliasofwestgate
@Anne Laurie:
Thanks! I’ll remember that next time. Hazard of the job, i think.
WereBear
@Jebediah: What challenging news on the medical front. Hoping for the best for you.
And yes, Otto sounds like a Prince among dogs.
Mnemosyne
@Joe Beese:
You go, Joe. Don’t let any pesky facts get in your way.
Here’s your theme song for today.
Jebediah
@WereBear:
Thank you – I’m trying to stay optimistic. I go see an oncological surgeon next week, I guess I will know more after that.
Svensker
@Jebediah:
Wow, that’s scary news. Hope all goes well. Hugs.
mclaren
The sheer unsustainability of cost increases in U.S. health care makes some kind of drastic change in the foreseeable future a certainty.
The interesting question is: what about college tuition costs and the U.S. military budget and American single-person automobile usage and the corporate offshoring mania?
These trends are equally unsustainable, and they’re headed for the same kind of drastic disruption as U.S. health care. And not 20 years out, either — we’re going to see huge disruptions in all those areas in much less time than that.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@burnspbesq: Oh, lord, the Concept 2. How come the same motion is utterly boring agony in a gym and really fun then you’re swinging an 11-foot oar in sync with 7 other people?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Since it’s an open thread with a health focus, I went to a Walgreens last night and asked the pharmacist when I could schedule a pap smear and breast exam; when she told me she had no idea what I was talking about, I told her that Faux News said Walgreens provides pap smears and breast exams (announced April 9). Here’s the really wacky part – I ran into my ob-gyn there, who’s been my doc for about 26 years. So there he stood as I asked the poor pharmacist how I would go about getting scheduled for a pap. I told him I’d be in next month, but I had a point to make. He just shook his head, said “somehow, I’m not surprised, Bella Q” and chuckled.
@Jebediah: Otto is wonderful indeed. And here’s good wishes that the treatment for that mole goes well and easily.
Elia Isquire
I am very excited about Vermont’s single payer. The media has been oddly mum about it…I guess once it goes into effect it’ll get more attention?
Just Some Fuckhead
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): You shoulda thrown yer naked breasts up on the counter.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Elia Isquire:
Does Vermont have enough population to create a large enough risk pool to be effective?
Thoroughly Pizzled
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/atlas_shrugged_part_i/
The Randians are already blaming this on the liberal moochers that control Hollywood.
PeakVT
and none of the CEOs so much as flinched in disagreement.
Which CEOs didn’t flinch? Hospital CEOs should want single-payer. They could eliminate tons of administrative staff and concentrate on running a medical institution.
dr. bloor
@Just Some Fuckhead:
They will once word gets out that you can live there without mortgaging your kid’s future to cover health insurance premiums.
AkaDad
@Elia Isquire:
The media will start covering it when any minor problem arises.
aliasofwestgate
@PeakVT:
Those of us in the RX business would LOVE it. Dealing with insurance agencies and their hundreds of plans is headache inducing in my aspect of things. I wonder just how bad hospital billing is in turn.
PeakVT
@Elia Isquire: It’s not going to happen overnight, or this year. The legislature is currently working on a bill that would set up a board that would design the program. That’s much, much too boring for the national media.
Elia Isquire
@PeakVT: Good to know. As of right now, I know about one iota more about it than Jake Tapper probably does, so my post really isn’t intended to mean anything more than “that sounds cool; I wish the media would help me remember that’s happening…”
Unrelated:
Hey guys? It’s motherfucking ON. And it was right here that it got started.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Elia Isquire:
I hadda quit reading BMM because of the privilege thing.
Elia Isquire
BMM? I feel like I’m missing something very obvious…but you’ve lost me.
Mark S.
You lost me too.
johnny walker
Just noticed from a transcript that I missed an important bit of Obama’s speech when it was aired live. Haven’t seen much discussion of this point anywhere in the liberalosphere yet.
Quoth the President:
The tax cut deal didn’t set this up particularly well, but having the President of the United States bust out the tax cuts == spending frame is f’ing phenomenal either way.
—
@Mark S.:
@Elia Isquire: “Big Media” Matt (Yglesias)
Elia Isquire
Ahhh. Well, BMM seems to have been in a bad mood today, as I peruse his twitter. His response to Freddie (the magic comment) was a little far on the smug side of the smug/funny ratio, imo; ditto his response to chris hayes rather innocuously questioning his post about CDS…
Corner Stone
@Mark S.: Black Male Monthly
Elia Isquire
@Corner Stone: ?
Corner Stone
@Elia Isquire: You haven’t realized by now JSF is an AA male?
Mark S.
I’m ready for a motherfucking throwdown on policy content! Who wants to step into the steel cage with me?
Corner Stone
@Mark S.: I only do beef fajita throwdowns. And my beef will kick your privileged ass all over that cage.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Corner Stone:
Gay too. But I’m still learning the ropes on that.
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead: I didn’t want to give it all away at once. He’s just a young lad.
Steeplejack
@Jebediah:
Jesus, dude, melanoma is the word you never want to hear. You will be in this skin cancer survivor’s thoughts tonight. Good luck.
Jebediah
@Steeplejack:
Thank you (and Svensker and Bella too) and yeah, I was not thrilled to hear that word at all. I’m pretty pale, and when I used to pretend to race a bicycle, I was out in the SoCal sun a lot (but almost always with sunscreen.)
And let me say, too, that all those wingers railing against unions are totally right. Without my union job, I wouldn’t have health insurance, and never would have gone for the checkup that found the mole. Wait a minute, that can’t be right. That makes it sound like my union ISN’T the cause of all evil in the world today…
Anne Laurie
@Jebediah: Otto is a Good Dog, and his person is a Good Man for noticing. I’ll keep a candle burning for you concerning that medical thing!
Kirbster
The only reason I can think of (although I have no evidence for it) that large employers wouldn’t want to be relieved of the responsiblility to provide heath care insurance for their employees is that they must either make money on the deal through insurance company kickbacks and tax breaks, or they use health care insurance as a tool to keep their best employees from leaving them to start new businesses.
Small businesses and individuals get clobbered by high insurance rates and ought to welcome single-payer with open arms. I hope Tim Johnson’s prediction is correct.