Health Affairs has a good halftime report from the Healthcare Summit, summarizing the jabs and parries between Democrats and Republicans on their healthcare ideas. Read it here. Too bad they left the best (and really only) question until last — it’s long past time to answer it and get out of the dead ends and diversions in the healthcare reform debate.
Newt Gingrich thought he’d start his party’s preparation for the Healthcare Summit by rustling up some fake statistics to support Republican’s favorite healthcare subject: tort reform. He did a great job too. His think tank, Center for Health Transformation, funded Jackson Healthcare, a healthcare management company, to direct a physician survey on defensive medicine costs. Their results: defensive medicine accounts for 26% of US healthcare costs annually, to the tune of $650 billion.
This Thursday, the Healthcare Summit will finally kick off. What will happen during the course of this none-too-historic event? You may be surprised to feel like you’re watching soap opera re-runs. And no, I’m not just referring to the fact that there was another healthcare summit held just about a year ago.
Not content to sit on their hands and wait for something to come out of Washington’s political games, 26 states are moving ahead with healthcare reform. Not all are as bold as California’s single payer initiative or Massachusett’s mandated coverage. But each cash-strapped state is taking meaningful steps towards reform, improving access, quality, and affordability in its own way.
Read the HealthLeaders story to find out where you may want to move.
No, really. I mean NAPKINS. In case you haven’t heard of Dan Roam, he’s the napkin guy, helping large corporations solve complex issues through “visual thinking”. Now he has joined forces with Anthony Jones, a non-practicing physician, to explain healthcare reform on the back of a napkin. It’s an interesting presentation that will help you explain healthcare reform and why we need it to less in-the-know friends and family. (Watch it after the jump.)