The Health Care Morass

• Dose of Reality: My Rogue Big Toe

  Neil Davis' latest Dose of Reality confronts a cost-saving measure often touted by those who don't follow their thought through to its consequences:One oft-repeated conservative mantra we hear nowadays is the one telling us that the road to health care reform requires each of us to take on more [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:58am EST
  

• Baucus bill written by Wellpoint

  An interview today on Democracy Now! with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler makes it clear that the health care reform bill is skewed. Woolhandler explains:The reform process in Washington has been hijacked by the private health insurance industry. If you look at the Baucus framework, which was the basis [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 9:29am EST
  

• Franken on medical bankruptcies

  [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 9:48am EDT
  

• Health care discussion panel

  The University of Alaska Fairbanks Student Pre-Medical Society will host a free public panel discussion on health care reform and how it could affect Alaskans Sunday, Oct. 25, from 4-6 p.m. at the Davis Concert Hall on the UAF campus.
  
  "The UAF pre-med society's goal is to offer the'" [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 8:19am EDT
  

• Health care reform is real

  This month's Dose of Reality concerns the way the American public pays for health care:[I]t is important to remember that the public always pays, and in fact, it is the only payer of the cost of health care. Many decades ago, the members of the public mostly paid for' [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 2:37pm EDT
  

• Two Town Meetings on Health Care

  Alaska’s two senators have now held town meetings on Health Care in Fairbanks, Senator Murkowski on August 13, and Senator Begich on September 26. The contrast between the two hosts and their events was striking.
  
  Based on their comments, questions, and levels of applause to statements, I concluded that [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 8:50am EDT
  

• Desperate measures for desperate times

  [...]
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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 2:20pm EDT
  

• We're Number 37

  [...]
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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 2:07pm EDT
  

• Obama's speech on health care reform

  Here's a transcript of Obama's speech to Congress on health care reform, along with some videos, from Huffington Post. [...]
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  Posted: September 10, 2009, 7:53am EDT
  

• Public meeing on health care with Senator Begich

  Senator Begich will be holding a forum in Fairbanks, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 26, at Friends Community Church, 1485 30th Avenue. Begich has held open discussions/question-and-answer town hall meetings in Anchorage and Juneau; according to the Anchorage Daily News, they've been beyond "lively" and' [...]
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  Posted: September 09, 2009, 7:25am EDT
  

• Alaska's Congressional delegation and health care reform

  The July Dose of Reality tackles the stance of our US senators and representative on health care reform. Davis sums up their approach: "According to its own statements, Alaska’s Congressional delegation hopes to kill meaningful health care reform this year." First, the Republicans:We have not heard much from Representative [...]
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  Posted: August 17, 2009, 11:43am EDT
  

• Sarah Palin on Health Care

  Sarah Palin’s recent Facebook statement (Associated Press, Aug. 8, 2009) in which she called President Obama’s health plan “downright evil” suggests that she did Alaska a big favor by abdicating the governorship last month. Anyone capable of intentionally publishing such a ridiculous and obviously untrue claim lacks the ethics and [...]
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  Posted: August 13, 2009, 7:22am EDT
  

• So what about the "death panels" we've got now, Sarah?

  Mike Madden of Salon asks this question with his recent article, "The 'Death Panels' Are Already Here":Opponents of reform often seem to skip right past any problems with the current system -- but it's rife with them. A study by the American Medical Association found the biggest insurance companies' [...]
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  Posted: August 12, 2009, 11:16am EDT
  

• Kucinich amendment passes committee

  As pointed out in The Beat, single-payer health care came to Canada province by province. Dennis Kucinich(D-Ohio) has successfully introduced an important amendment to America's Affordable Health Choices Act, H.R. 3200: By a 25-19 vote, the House Committee on Education and Labor on Friday approved an amendment to the' [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 8:44am EDT
  

• Comedy team in health care reform

  Neil's newest Dose of Reality treats the recent hearings on health care reform in the Senate:As we watch the Senate Committee on Finance grapple with the task of how to reduce the cost of health care in the United States it is easy to get the impression that we' [...]
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  Posted: June 30, 2009, 7:32am EDT
  

• Single-payer health care teach-in at UAF

  Addendum 6/30/09: this teach in was postponed and will be rescheduled.
  
  Neil Davis is a guest speaker at a teach-in on single-payer health care systems to be held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, Saturday, June 27, from 1 to 5 pm at the Boyd Berry Auditorium in [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 6:07pm EDT
  

• Talk of Alaska

  I will be on Steve Heimel's APRN "Talk of Alaska" program airing at 10:00 am tomorow, Tuesday, June 9. We will be talking about the progress of health care reform.
  
  Addendum 6/9/09: a link to the broadcast is available at the Talk of Alaska website. Senator' [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 12:00pm EDT
  

• Community Perspective by Richard Seifert on universal health care

  Rich Seifert's piece in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner today has provoked quite a lot of comment on the merits (or perceived lack therof) of a single-payer universal health care system. He writes this:Davis ultimately compares our system to those of other industrialized nations, making a compelling case for a' [...]
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  Posted: June 06, 2009, 5:32pm EDT
  

• Davis to participate in the 3rd Alaska Book Festival

  
  The 2009 Alaska Book Festival will be held in Fairbanks on June 11, 12, and 13, with the theme "Historically Alaska." Neil Davis will be available during the general author book signings on Friday the 12th and Saturday the 13th (4 to 6 pm each [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2009, 7:26am EDT
  

• A cartoonist's view of the health care reform hoo-hah

  Peter Dunlap-Shohl, former editorial cartoonist for the Anchorage Daily News, has a new blog on health care issues and reform: Gurney to the Dark Side. Check it out: he takes a grim subject and puts a bit of much-needed levity into it while skewering the absurdities of our current [...]
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  Posted: May 20, 2009, 12:15pm EDT
  

• An example that Alaska should not follow

  In the May Dose of Reality, Neil Davis examines the results of the Massachusetts Health Reform Law of 2006. In short, the reform has failed.There is of course a reason for the failure. The framers of the Massachusetts legislation refused to address head-on the major problem with American health [...]
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  Posted: May 18, 2009, 2:55pm EDT
  

• A comparison of single-payer and multi-payer systems

  The United States uses a multi-payer, for-profit health care system, with some elements that are not for profit, such as Medicare. Our system is administered privately, and operates from a market-based view, i.e., that health care is a commodity. Canada, on the other hand, uses a single-payer system that, while [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 2:42pm EDT
  

• Pharmaceutical industry perturbed by the Drug Savings and Choice Act

  In the April Dose of Reality, Neil Davis shows how the pharmaceutical industry, which is not happy about the provisions in the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2009, is, in effect, a giant marketing machine, but not really an industry devoted to finding new drugs to [...]
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  Posted: April 19, 2009, 11:51am EDT
  

• The health care reform war starts

  And the first sally, according to Neil Davis, is the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2009 (HR 684 and S 330).I am hoping that President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress will get behind the serious reform proposed by HR 676… this bill calls for a total overhaul [...]
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  Posted: April 18, 2009, 3:38pm EDT
  

• April author events in Fairbanks

  April 4: talk at the meeting of the UAF Society of Pre-med Students, 6 pm
  
  April 28: IDEA Curriculum Fair, Westmark Hotel & Convention Center, 11 to 1 [...]
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  Posted: April 02, 2009, 5:22pm EDT
  

• Neil Davis on Sleep in Saturdays with Matt Want

  Matt Want hosts a local talk show on 660-KFAR on Saturday mornings from 10 to 11 am, choosing a different topic each week. This Saturday's topic is the US health care system and Neil Davis has been invited to be on the show. You can call in with questions' [...]
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  Posted: March 06, 2009, 6:51pm EST
  

• Insuring the Uninsurable

  In February's Dose of Reality, Davis looks at the some 60,000 Alaskans who are refused health insurance by the for-profit industry and the alternative they are provided by the state: health insurance so expensive that almost no one has purchased it:The cheapest ACHIA policy is a PPO plan with' [...]
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  Posted: March 06, 2009, 6:50pm EST
  

• The Health Care Reform War Opens

  Democrats fired the opening shot of the Health Care Reform War in January with the introduction of a bill to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. Introduced in both the House and Senate, the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2009 (H. R. [...]
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  Posted: February 19, 2009, 9:48am EST
  

• A pseudo-solution

  In the latest Dose of Reality, Davis discusses the results of a recent study by Families USA:Overall, it’s not a very pretty picture. Health insurance premiums for Alaskans increased 73.6 percent from 2000 to 2007. That increase is 5.7 times higher than the rise in median salaries, and to [...]
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  Posted: January 31, 2009, 6:28pm EST
  

• Medicare for all: 2.6 million new jobs

  According to the California Nurses Association, in a press release dated January 14, a single-payer health care system would:• Create 2,613,495 million new permanent good-paying jobs (slightly exceeding the number of jobs lost in 2008)
  • Boost the economy with $317 billion in increased business and public [...]
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  Posted: January 30, 2009, 5:44pm EST
  

• If the English can do it, why can't we?

  December's Dose of Reality describes how the United Kingdom, which truly does have socialized medicine, continues to improve their system. In the United States, we have a serious shortage of primary care physicians. Yet, primary health care is vital to the wellbeing of a nation's population, and to keeping [...]
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  Posted: January 13, 2009, 10:07am EST
  

• 93 cosponsors for HR 676

  The number of cosponsors for this legislation has crept up in the last Congress, to 93. The list below, in alphabetical order by co-sponsor, shows the date at which the representative signed on to this important legislation:Rep Abercrombie, Neil [HI-1] - 1/24/2007
  Rep Baca, Joe [CA-43] - 9/17/2007 [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2008, 1:34pm EST
  

• Call to Action Health Care Reform 2009

  Another mostly misguided proposal for reforming our health care system has surfaced this month. It, “Call to Action Health Care Reform 2009,” comes from Montana Democrat Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. See it at [finance.senate.gov]
  
  Eighty-seven pages long, the Call to Action plan claims to [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2008, 1:15pm EST
  

• Dose of Reality: Health Insurance Costs in Retirement

  The November issue of The Ester Republic features Neil Davis' discussion of just how pricey health care will be once you retire. The picture is not pretty. With the trend away from defined-benefit retirement programs, increasing numbers of Americans are in defined-contribution programs. Many of these people will' [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2008, 5:55am EST
  

• Dose of Reality: Do Not Resuscitate

  In the October issue of The Ester Republic, Neil Davis discusses the issues brought out in Dr. John Geyman's book, Do Not Resuscitate: Why the Health Insurance Industry is Dying, And How We Must Replace It. The problem, as Geyman observes and Davis concurs, is that[T]he industry has' [...]
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  Posted: October 25, 2008, 9:22am EDT
  

• The Economics of Health Care

  At the Democratic National Convention, Senator Ted Kennedy stated that health care is a human right, and in one of the presidential debates, Senator Barack Obama said the same thing. What this means, of course, is that this country needs to put in place a single-payer universal health care system.
  [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2008, 9:26am EDT
  

• Pundits on Health Care

  Right now, the crash of the financial markets is taking center stage, but the nation’s health care problems are still the subject of various press pundits’ commentaries. In the October 13, 2008 issue of NEWSWEEK, one of better known commentators, Jane Bryant Quinn, discusses John McCain’s health plan, [...]
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  Posted: October 10, 2008, 1:28pm EDT
  

• Mired reprint

  Mired in the Health Care Morass has gone into its second printing, with a large order from the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. It should be arriving from the printer today or tomorrow. [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2008, 9:34am EDT
  

• Davis honored for bringing science to the public

  Neil Davis was one of six people recognized for their contributions to science research, education, and outreach recently by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Arctic Division and the Alaska Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. Davis was honored for his support [...]
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  Posted: September 20, 2008, 1:27pm EDT
  

• Dose of Reality: McCain's health care plan

  In the September issue of the Ester Republic, Davis examines John McCain's health care plan and the deregulation he proposes in more detail than in previous issues. From the article:The immediate consequence is obvious: Insurance companies would immediately relocate to states such as Alaska which' [...]
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  Posted: September 20, 2008, 6:56pm EDT
  

• Saving Money on Medical Bills

  Microsoft News Money recently carried a good article on how to save money on medical bills, an article from Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine titled, “Save thousands on medical bills.” See [articles.moneycentral.msn.com]. The article contains several hints on how to save on medical bills that I have previously given in [...]
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  Posted: September 11, 2008, 1:23pm EDT
  

• UAF: lecture by Devra Davis on cancer prevention and public health policy

  Condensed from the public announcement:
  
  UAF is hosting a talk by Devra Lee Davis, a University of Pittsburg epidemiology professor and author, on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. in Schaible Auditorium. Davis’ lecture, “The Secret History of the War on Cancer,” is free and open to the public, [...]
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  Posted: September 04, 2008, 6:23pm EDT
  

• Dose of Reality: HR 676 and the presidential candidates' proposals

  In the August Dose of Reality column, "HR 676: The Route to Affordable Health Care," Davis discusses why the proposal is "a dream bill...that does all the right things to create an affordable single-payer health care system."
  
  In the July Dose of Reality, Davis looks at [...]
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  Posted: August 29, 2008, 3:29am EDT
  

• A Good Investment

  This year the Alaska legislature took a small but positive step toward helping to improve health care in the state by appropriating $3.85 million in support of the 26 federally funded Community Health Centers in the state. By taking this action Alaska has, for the first time, joined 37 [...]
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  Posted: August 28, 2008, 10:05am EDT
  

• Harry and Louise Return

  Today, August 24, 2008, marks the return of the old Harry and Louise ads credited with defeating the Clinton universal health care plan of fifteen years ago. They are being put on the air on the eve of the presidential conventions for the same purpose as the last time: [...]
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  Posted: August 24, 2008, 11:28am EDT
  

• Another co-sponsor for HR 676

  The ninety-first co-sponsor of HR 676 is André Carson (D-IL). The list of endorsements of this legislation is growing, including the US Conference of Mayors and numerous unions, including the Alaska AFL-CIO. [...]
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  Posted: August 12, 2008, 11:43am EDT
  

• The Foraker-Rasmuson Health Insurance Plan

  The July 27, 2008 issue of the Fairbanks Daily New-Miner carries an article based on an earlier one in the Anchorage Daily News describing what it calls a “bold insurance plan” being put forth by the Foraker Group and the Rasmuson Foundation aimed at lowering the number of [...]
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  Posted: July 28, 2008, 9:54am EDT
  

• Latest review, from Alaska Health Policy Review

  Lawrence D. Weiss, Anchorage Daily News blogger of Health4all and editor of the online journal Alaska Health Policy Review, has come out with a detailed and positive review of Mired in the Health Care Morass. The review appeared in the July 16 issue and the excerpt below [...]
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  Posted: July 20, 2008, 3:04am EDT
  

• Doctor Shortages?

  How many doctors does it take to adequately serve 1000 people? The number varies with country, it seems. In 1997, two countries with highly rated health care systems, France (WHO rating 1st) and Germany (WHO rating 25th), had about 3.3 doctors per 1000 population, but Japan, also highly rated by [...]
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  Posted: July 09, 2008, 9:15am EDT
  

• The Reality of Health Care: A Huge Disparity in Need

  HEALTH CARE: MYTH AND REALITY
  
  A MAJOR MYTH, One promoted by the current administration, employers and insurance companies: the American health care problem could be solved if we could convince Americans to take more personal responsibility for maintaining healthier lifestyles and giving them a greater freedom of choice in [...]
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  Posted: June 24, 2008, 10:48am EDT