Promises of universal health care roll off the tongues of several presidential candidates but how do they plan to achieve it? Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Director of the Clinical Bioethics Department at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, says he's got the solution, in the form of an innovative and crowd-pleasing voucher plan."I think the universal part appeals to the Democrats. The voucher part appeals to Republicans. And I think it should make us one big happy family," Dr. Emanuel tells David Brancaccio in a web-exclusive interview.
http://www.pbs.org/now/news/315.html
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3 comments:
Bill Clinton came to SF yesterday and provided great context on why, and how, our health care needs to change.
He outlined the 3 main problems with US Healthcare as follows-and empathized that any serious, long-term solution needs to address these 3 elements as a whole:
* immoral unequal coverage
* inefficient system: we pay more for less
* we still focus more on disease than on health. But he is hopeful about an increasing focus on wellness, absolutely necessary to alleviate future cost pressures
These thoughts may help us evaluate the voucher proposal. More about Clinton's speech at
http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/04/15/bill-clinton-on-health-care-and-wellness/
the link didn't travel well. here it is
Bill Clinton on health care and wellness.
I think this post highlighting Bill Clinton's comments is great.
I really agree with the terminiology that he used -that unequal coverage is "immoral". I am one who beleives that the government has a fiduciary obligation to provide basic healthcare to all citizens.
That said, I also followed the HMO industry for five years while working at Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. Though the current model isn't perfect, I do think there is a role for the free market to manage part of the solution.
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