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.
Just in time to meet the 72-hour window for Thursday’s Healthcare Summit, Obama’s healthcare proposal is out. Notice it’s not called a “plan”. There’s a reason for that. The one word that comes to mind having browsed through it is “reactive”, and reacting is not planning. Nonetheless, here’s what’s in it, including a link so you can thumb through the 11-page document yourself.
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.
As I live in southern Arizona, I expect immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, to be the scapegoat for the problem de jour. The county hospital is running a deficit for the 15th consecutive year? It’s the illegals. But it doesn’t stop there – state and city government mismanagement, educational system woes, the housing market collapse, even global warming – all are somehow caused by illegal immigrants. “Blame Mexico” may not be admirable root cause analysis, but it’s a surefire way to identify a redneck. Now a new Health Affairs report has debunked a nationwide craze of immigrant scapegoating.
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.)
