Some fun Easy Read Sources!

Here are two easy read sources that give you information on the current Obama Health Care reform.

Obama calls for health care reform in 2009
This uses direct Obama quotes from the speech he gave about health care reform occuring before the year ends.  It gives an idea of how Obama plans to do this and what his thoughts are.
Obama battles health care reform critics
This discusses how Obama is being criticized and how he is handling it.  Gives another side to Obama's ideas and another opinion from the republican side.


Both reads are from news sources and although news can be biased at times I think this is great information to help broaden your scope on the debate.

Feel free to comment on what you think about the current happenings with the GREAT HEALTH REFORM DEBATE

Important Information!

Here are some important readings that I summarized.  Its great information that can help you further your knowledge!


Small Business Briefing on Health Insurance Reform
       This is a summary of an interview between Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Small Business Association Administrator Karen Mills about how the health reform effects small businesses.  Mills states that in this country we have many people wanting to create a successful business on their own, but you can't leave your employer because you can't afford a policy on your own.  It takes some small business owners years before they can get health coverage for their employers and do not think they are successful until they do so.  Some small business owners state that they are living the American dream, but to them it is a nightmare. Each tiny change in the economy they feel much larger.  This reading gives you a better sense of how small business owners feel and gives you exact expressions.  I would read this to help get other opinions and feelings on the subject.

Lower Premiums Stronger Businesses
It is projected by 2025 one in every four dollars will be spent on health care.  This cuts into employee pay and deter hiring and business.   On average small businesses pay 18% more than larger firms and companies for health insurance policies. This high amount discourages them from covering their employees and sometimes is nearly impossible for them to provide.  The health reform will help lower premiums for smaller businesses in four ways.  It creates a health insurance exchange, provides a small business a tax credit, it ends the hidden tax on small businesses that provide coverage, and lastly prevents arbitrary premium hikes. This is a longer reading but has great information on how this new reform will effect small businesses in a positive way.

Preventing Diseases Before They Happen
 This discusses how Americans spend the most on health care yet do not live longer.  We need to start providing more preventative care so that we can avoid needed so much health care.  It is a short read but a great perspective on how wellness and prevention promotion can help health issues Americans seem to face.

Health Insurance Reform and Medicare
This report is great at stating the problems with medicare today and exactly the solutions the health insurance reform will provide.  It states that the reform will improve quality of care, reduce costs for those on medicare, and make sure it is a lasting program. Eliminating the overpayments the government has been giving private insurance companies will greatly improve the program and prevent bankruptcy. This elimination could save the Federal government, taxpayers, and Medicare beneficiaries well over $100 billion over the next 10 years. This will extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund and make sure that Medicare is always there for America’s seniors. Reform will also ensure that medicare dollars go toward improving the quality of care for all seniors, rather than to support private insurance companies.  This is great information for those who do not know what is currently happening with medicare and how the reform will help improve it.

Fighting Back Against Cancer: Health Insurance Reform and Cancer in America
Cancer affects approximately 11 million Americans in our nation making it a very important health concern.  Someone who is diagnosed with cancer does not immediately think of the cost of treatment, yet it is one of the most important things.  Cancer is one of the five most costly medical conditions in the United States so they now must make important financial decisions about their health.  5% of individuals with cancer report delaying treatment due to financial reasons and no one should have to decide between their health and paying their rent.  Those with cancer frequently must make financial decisions and not on what is best for their health. By making health insurance accessible those with cancer will be less burdened by their finances and can make the right choice for their health and not their wallets.

Health Reform Through the Years: A Timeline

1997- CHIP was formed.  This is the Children Health Insurance Program which in 2008 covered over seven
           million children.

2002- Health costs continue to rise and with the economic struggles, employers and employees have a
          difficult time absorbing the costs.

2003- Bush expands medicare to cover prescription drugs. The Medicare Modernization act was signed to 
          help create more coverage.

2006- health spending increases to 16.2% of the economy which caps spending at 2 trillion dollars. This is an
          incredible amount of money spent solely on health care.

2008- Obama promises sweeping health care coverage reforms.  At this point 46 million Americans are
          without health coverage.

2009- Senator Kennedy issues a health bill.  It proposes that all Americans have access to essential health
          care benefits.  Employers would have to contribute to costs of coverage and the government would
          create another insurance program.

To find earlier events in time check out a complete timeline at A History of Health Reform

Resources and Readings I find Credible that you should check out!

Resources:
These are resources I used within my postings as well as extras you should consider checking out.

·        

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention 

o   www.cdc.gov and specifically

o   http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/hinsure.htm

·         Government Resource Website

o   http://healthreform.gov/index.html

 

·         Vocabulary associated with The Great Health Care Reform Debate

o   http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7909.pdf

 

·         United States Department of Labor – COBRA information

o   http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.HTML

·         List of Health Insurance websites to further your knowledge

o   http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/health-insurance-companies

·         A Time Line for the health reform and a great resource on what is occurring now.

o   http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/us/politics/20090717_HEALTH_TIMELINE.html

·         Kaiser Family Foundation offers a large amount of information on the reform

o   http://healthreform.kff.org/

·         The Commonwealth Fund works on providing healthcare

o   http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Health-Reform.aspx

·         The American Nursing Association

o   http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/HealthcareandPolicyIssues/HealthSystemReform/HealthCareReformResources.aspx

·         National Conference State Legislatives

o   http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=17639

Important Terms when discussing this reform...

        When talking about health reform some terms arise that many Americans, like myself, are unsure about.  So below the title is a link to a health reform dictionary, but I summarized what I thought was important here in terms that make it much easier to grasp.

1. Benefit Package: This is all the health services your insurance plan will cover.  This may include doctor's visits, dental, medications, or it may be minimal and only cover a few select services.  You may hear some people state their job has "Benefits". This is their coverage. Some employers offer a benefits package with employment and others do not.
2. Children's Health Insurance Program: (also known as CHIP) This came about in 1997 as a federal-state program.  It provides health care coverage for uninsured children who do not qualify for Medicaid.  This is a great program because children can have health care coverage even if their parents can not provide it.
3. Co-Payment: This is a predetermined and fixed fee that the individual will pay at the time of receiving a service or a prescription.  For example I am a military dependent.  At a military hospital I receive everything without co-payment, but when here at campus I must pay a small fee when receiving services because it is not with a specific type of provider.
   
4. Employer Pay-or-Play: Employers are required to offer and pay for health benefits for their employees. Another option is they pay a specified percentage to a public fund.
   
5. Group Health Insurance: Health insurance that is offered to a group of people such as employees of a company.  The majority of America has this through their employer or spouses employer.
   
6. Health Care Cooperative: (Co-Op) This is a non profit member run health insurance organization.  It has a board of directors that are elected by its members that run the organization. these provide coverage to individuals and small businesses and are capable of running at state, regional, and national levels.
   
7. Premium: The amount paid [usually monthly] for health insurance. This can be shared between employers, employees, and the government.
   
8. Public Option: This is a proposal for a new insurance plan.  It would be administered and funded by federal or state government.
   
9. Universal Coverage:This simply means every American would be provided health coverage.
   

Check out this page for more terms that may arise in your research Glossary of Key Health Reform Terms

WEEKLY POSTING #5: What Health Insurance Plan Do You Have?

           Covered? Uninsured? Partially insured? My question for you this week is what type of coverage and insurance company do you have? Also, what do you think about your health coverage? It is important when trying to find private health insurance to do as much research as you can on the subject.  Being an informed consumer is the smart way to go and will help reduce the chance of you being burned in the future.  Last week we covered making a point system when looking at companies and policies.  It is much easier to compare the pros and cons of a plan by laying them out side by side. 
           Lastly are there any questions you have for me.  Examples might be information on the health reform bill, alternative forms of medicine, examples of out of pocket health costs, and anything you might want to know about to help you be better informed. 

WEEKLY POSTING #4: Lets rate our options!

         Everyone will need medical attention at some point in their lives even if it is just a blood test for a job, or women, they need an exam every year. Medical Insurance is getting more difficult to have as time progresses which is why this health care reform is so important.  It is a difficult task trying to compare insurance companies side by side so I came up with a ranking system to make that an easier task.

The RANKS: each criteria is worth a point, if the company meets the criteria they get that point.
          1.Has more than just medical, but dental as well. (It is an important part of health)
          2. Offers information on other Health Insurance as well as other ways of getting covered
          3. Easy to access contact information
          4. Describes the different insurance coverage in detail.
          5. Offers Health Information besides insurance coverage

Premera Blue Cross 2 points - it only explains in detail coverage plans and has dental, nothing else.
Blue Cross Blue Shield 5 points -top score
Humana 4 points - had a great page about health and wellness

It is important to thoroughly research and explore any insurance company you may be interested.  Be an informed consumer and do your homework.  You will be thanking yourself in the end.

For a large list of different insurance companies you can go to:
eHealthInsurance

WEEKLY POSTING #3: All Angles of the Health Spectrum

      This post is here to get you thinking about issues within the suggested solutions to the health care coverage dilemma. With some policies everyone pays the exact same percentage of their income for health care coverage.  This means if you are a perfect healthy individual what you are paying may be paying for someone else's broken leg or chemotherapy. This also works in the reverse.  If you have a broken leg or some illness that requires an expensive treatment, someone else might be paying for it with their payment.  This is insurance companies work as well, but many people are not ok with this.  What do you think? Also, what kind of system do you think would be fair and would be successful if implemented?  These are many questions to take into consideration. 

     Also another question to ask would be how much do you think you should pay a month for health coverage? Think about what kind of health care you recieve each month.  Now that that is in your head put a price on it. How much is your healthcare you use every month worth to you.  It is now "what-if" time.  So what if you had some illness that you had to have an expensive treatment for each month.  If you could not pay for it, and without treatment you would die, would you want help from someone else? Thinking about this picture then does it not seem like a good plan to have everyone pay the same percentage so that everyone can afford it. That way if your health care that is worth so much to you, whether or not it is expensive, needs to be used more you are not trying to scrape up the money to cover it?  The system of one affordable payment for everyone seems like a good safety net for health care.  Everyone would be able to afford it and able to seek care and everyone is covered no matter what the cost. 
        
      So what do you think? Do you think we should formulate a system where everyone pays the same amount? Or maybe you think we should keep the insurance system we have because you pay for your insurance just fine.  Lets discuss your ideas on the GREAT HEALTH REFORM DEBATE.

WEEKLY POSTING #2: Other options besides the Doctor's Office

   What are your fellow Americans doing in this health care crisis? Complementary and alternative medicine have been on a great rise. Some of these include taking vitamins or supplements, massage, accupuncture, spiritual rituals, and many more. What is Complementary and Alternative medicine you might be asking. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defines it as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine."  This website offers many lists and definitions of complementary and alternative definitions and is a great resource.  There is a difference between alternative and complementary medicine and that is that complementary is used along with conventional medicine while alternative is used in place of conventional medicine.
     Many people partake in both complementary and alternative medicines to attempt to process healing either faster, in a different way, or because they can not afford conventional medicine practices because of lack of insurance.  The question for you this week is would you be willing to try alternative or complementary medicines either because of financial ability or even to just experiment and see what is out there.  I challenge you to check out the NCCAM website and  see if it is something worth researching to you or if conventional medicine is something everyone should strive for.

Also as another resource check out Jadie's HED 209 Blog.  Great creditable information from another creditable student.

WEEKLY POSTING #1: Possible Solutions?

So looking at the current health reform issue what do think could be a potential solution?  It is not an easy task attempting to find a solution that solves every aspect of the issue and can be applied to every very diverse case.  You always hear the voices of the people in power or big fancy health professionals, but what do you think as an everyday American living with this struggle.
            What is the President doing right now to help with this issue you ask; well there are many components to his current process.  The first component is he is implementing provisions for those Americans who have lost their job.  This component entails that administration will provide Americans who lose or lost their job a tax credit that allows them to keep their health insurance through COBRA. For those that do not know what COBRA is, it is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.  This is a continuation health program that allows certain people to continue their health insurance.  (For more information on COBRA click here to visit The United States Department of Labor website.) This helps cover those who are now unemployed and without insurance.
            The next component reenacts the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  This gives States incentives to help cover children.  An estimated 4 million children on average would be covered.  It will help those children and their families in risk of losing their coverage in this uneasy economy.  The third component which will help save money by cutting down time is computerizing medical records.  Paper systems take way more time and relying on the memory of a patient can be costly, time consuming, and somewhat unreliable.  This is an important step in modernizing health care practices and reducing health care costs.
            The fourth component is creating and distributing information on health and interventions.  Basically medicine changes incredibly fast and its practically impossible for a single physician to keep up with all the new research.  Without this information it’s difficult for a physician to diagnose and give the individualized treatment a patient is expecting and deserves. By solving this problem we can prevent wasting money, time, and services on wrong treatments.  Last, but certainly not least, he wants to invest in prevention and wellness programs to save money in the future.  This is very important because prevention helps prevent future health care costs due to behaviors that could have been prevented earlier. 
            These are all great steps in the solution to this health care reform, but one important question is where does the money for these processes come from? So my question for you is what is your opinion? How do you think we should approach this?  Well stay tuned in for our next discussion on THE GREAT HEALTH REFORM DEBATE.
{My source for this post was HealthReform.gov which is a great resource for this topic.  I encourage you to explore it to help further your knowledge}

The Great Health Reform Debate Introduction

 So if you do not listen to the radio, watch the news, or listen to other people gripe then you might not have heard about the great health reform debate that is taking place. According to the Center For Disease Control and Prevention in 2008 17% of America's population under the age of 65 did not have health insurance and 65% had private insurance. These numbers do not seem terrible, but would it not be great to have every American's health care covered?  The problem today is that private insurance prices are starting to spiral upward increasing until its nearly unaffordable.  Asa result our number of 65% privately insured will decrease and our 17% completely uninsured will increase drastically.  Employers today are in a money runch with raised insurance prices and are having to increase the amount employers pay, cut back on benefits, or cut coverage all together.  Individuals who are do not or no longer recieve benefits from work are now realizing that trying to buy their own policy is nearly impossible due to pricing and some companys will not sell them a policy.  As a result of this crazy spiral in increasing prices our uninsured population will continue to rise and this is where the debate comes in.

        What will work? What health system will be unflawed? Should we copy Canada? So many questions are asked and unanswered as The United States Department of Health is trying to find solutions to make health care affordable, insurance affordable, and to better the overall health of the United States.  The Secretary of the US Health Department states,"Today, Americans spend more on health care than any other country in the world, yet we don’t live longer." (Full Statement) Children today may live shorter lives than that of their parents, which says a great deal about America's health.  So what are the problems here? First off the US health status is much lower than it should be, health care is extremely exspensive as well as the insurance to cover it, there is not enough critical preventative measures being taken to prevent our next generation's health status to decrease, and there is not enough money to go around.  There are many more detailed issues with health care today, but we will explore those further as time goes on. 

    So what are we doing about it? The government (US Health Department and President Obama) is working together to find a solution that will cover the problems we are facing. For the sake of keeping this just an introduction and not putting you to sleep we will discuss the ideas that have been presented later. So as we wait for a solution to be put in place, what are we Americans doing? Some are still keeping their private insurance or are paying the higher shared pay at work. Some are lucky enough to still have coverage from their employer such as myself [as a college student I still receive my Father’s benefits]. Others are not so lucky. Some simply avoid going to a doctor, which sometimes is fine and their health concern goes away, or it can get much worse and in the end cost much more. Others seek Alternative forms of medicine which is another thing we will discuss here.


Alternative forms of medicine can include acupressure, acupuncture, supplements, vitamins, herbal remedies and the list is endless. In 2007 Americans spent nearly 33.9 billion dollars on complementary or alternative medicines according to the CDC.  That is a great deal of money spent on something other than a doctor.  Alternative medicines can be argued numerous ways on whether they are effective or not, but the problem with some of these alternatives is that they are not FDA approved.  Many vitamins and supplements are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration which has its approval to assure consumers that proper testing has been completed, information on the product is correct and displayed for the consumer, and that it is simply safe to consume. 

   The Health Reform Debate is an important subject that indirectly or directly effects everyone so its an important thing to familiarize yourself with.  As the debate continues we will continue to wait and in turn do what we can to try and keep ourselves healthy.  Stay tuned in for our next discussion on the GREAT HEALTH REFORM DEBATE and what we're doing about it.

Questions Presented for Class:

QUESTION #1.) What makes an opinion different from a "fact"? Are all opinions equally valid? If so, why? If not, why not? What impact do opinions and "facts" have on individual consumer health and on the health of a whole population of consumers?

QUESTION #2.) In our Public Health Code of Ethics, an underlying value is that "Humans have a right to the resources necessary for health" (Public Health Leadership Society, 2002, p. 2). How does this underlying value add to our basic three ethics to help explain why the majority of public health professionals do not encourage using the free market perspective as a base for health care systems?

QUESTION #3.) When looking at the "new media" out there - the grassroots groups on the web, Twitters that seem to get a lot of attention, talk radio, 24-hour news channels, etc - do you see more of the market perspective or more that appears to be based on a Public Health ethics perspective? What does the general public need to know? What are the barriers to them knowing it?


1.) An opinion is a belief or feeling someone has towards a certain subject. There can be an infinite amount of opinions towards a given subject and none are technically wrong because that is their belief or feeling. A fact on the other hand is something researched, proven, or equally accepted as fact. I believe all opinions are not equally valid. Opinions are like the brain, everyone has them but they are all quite different. Some are based off of facts and some are just pulled out of misinformation. No one opinion is necessarily more right than the next, but an opinion based on fact would hold more creditable than one of no fact. More people may agree with a certain opinion, but that does not mean it is a fact. Facts and opinions impact consumer health immensely. Not everyone knows the facts or what is true about a product, but an opinion can spread like wildfire and either help or hinder a consumer when considering a product. Facts are what the consumer needs to know, but if the facts are not out there and only opinions are the whole population of consumers are not aware if whether a product is god or bad in terms of their health. Consumers need to be aware and able to recognize what information is fact and what is opinion. For example the Flu Vaccine, fact is that it is a dead virus that is inserted in the body. Opinion would be that it makes them ill afterwards so many consumers will not get the Flu Vaccine even though it is very helpful in keeping their health up during Flu season.
2.) This value is very important because consumers need to know what it is they are consuming. The government puts policies and regulations in place that help make sure information and products display important information and that consumers have easy access to the information they need before consuming a product. Health professionals discourage a free market perspective because then the government policies and regulations will no longer be in place and consumers do not have that safety net of information there for them. Without policies requiring information be available on products there is not much incentive for product companies to let the consumer know what they are really buying which can put consumers in danger.
3.) There is a lot of “new media” out there and one issue is that older generations and underprivileged generations do not have access or knowledge to use these new forms of media. There is a market perspective in this new media rather than public health ethics. The public needs all the information that is out there because it all can affect them in one way or another. Everything should be available to the public, but one barrier that one encounters is that not everyone has access or the knowledge needed to access this information. The government really tries to have everything available to the public, but it is difficult when low income communities do not have cable or internet, or if there is not a local library. It can be difficult for some people to find access to this information.