Mismanaged Managed Care
I know I would have about as much success as a pimply middle school math-league captain trying to win a date with the high-school prom queen (or anyone for that matter...middle schoolers can be a cruel lot), but I so often want to walk into the halls of congress, or through the oval office doors, insisting to our "leaders" that they read and implement some of the books we feature here on inBubbleWrap. Some books might help remind our "elected" officials that they are SERVING the people. Others might help the left side of the spectrum not be so insecure about what they actually are and believe in - liberals with a progressive agenda - by reminding them that very few advancements in human history have been made while "staying the course". You can't have progress without progressives. I think Seth would serve as a fantastic guide in both situations.
Then there are times when I not only want to insist upon the reading of certain books by our politicians, I want to put the book on a microchip and insert it into their brains. Today's books is one such case. Why? Because our "health care" (lots of quotes today, huh?) system is disgustingly broken, and we not only need to know who broke it, but how to fix it...AND FAST. Regina Herzlinger just might have the best solution, and that solution can be found in her latest book, Who Killed Healthcare: America's $2 Trillion Medical Problem - and the Consumer Driven Cure.
Most of the time, when a manager simply can't manage, they do not last as managers (I said most of the time). So why is it taking so long for our totally mismanaged "managed care" system to be replaced (other than the obvious campaign contribution factor)? Small businesses are getting raped, which is in turn putting an enormous amount of financial burden on general employees while the pharma and insurance companies rake in record profits.
Regina Herzlinger has written two other books (Consumer-Driven Health Care and Market-Driven Health Care) and has come to be referred to as the "Godmother" of consumer-driven health care. Consumer-driven healthcare is not just another catchy term; Regina has started a legitimate movement - one we should be paying attention to.
I think the first few lines of this book's description (way to go copywriter person) frames the health care issue in a meaningful way when it says, "Consumers are in charge of every transaction in their lives--except for health care. Insurance companies have either partial or total control over which doctors, treatments, and medications they can use. Doctors on the other hand, are often powerless to assign the tests and treatments their patients need." I find this UNACCEPTABLE bordering on criminal.
After Regina exposes who is truly at fault for such an atrocious system, she tells us exactly what needs to happen in order to institute a consumer-driven system where the "insurance money would be put in the hands of the patient, REMOVE THE MIDDLE MAN IN PATIENTS' RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR DOCTORS, and give employers cost relief." Unless you are the middle man, I can't imagine anyone not wanting this vital change to take place.
Let us all read Who Killed Healthcare and speak truth to power until something gets done. I, for one, am getting pretty darn sick of $2 Thousand deductibles.
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