Editorial: Healthcare Reform: Different Things to Different People

Healthcare reform is a big topic today, with many weighing-in with their opinions. However, it is important to realize that not all are talking about the same thing; some people have different goals.

Politicians (trying to get elected) talk about trying to get everybody insured for the costs of health care using our tax dollars. However, in a couple of states that have tried that this year, they are already out of money and asking Congress to help bail them out. (It is quite evident that individual states and the U.S. government cannot afford to pay the bill for health care for everybody. Just look at what is happening in other countries with socialized medicine today and the cutbacks they are making; see the news stories below.)

Patients want healthcare costs to decrease and are willing to almost accept anything that will guarantee that their health needs will be met at minimal or no expense to them. This results in high positive response rates from the "surveys" showing that healthcare reform is at the top of the list of what the public wants. (However, there is no such thing as a free lunch�taxpayers have to pay the bill.)

Healthcare practitioners are seeing their professions being usurped by "those insurers paying the bill with our money." The payers are dictating the conditions under which they will pay and the amounts they will pay. This adversely affects healthcare practitioners, as they no longer can do their job without considerations of what will or will not be paid for.

Physicians are "told" what they can and cannot do and what they can and cannot prescribe.

Pharmacists are "told" what they can and cannot dispense, and, basically, we accept the low reimbursement levels in a "take it or leave it" situation in many cases.

Pharmaceutical companies see opportunities to deal directly with payers to get their products on the formulary, thus eliminating or bypassing expensive marketing to physicians.

Bureaucrats see opportunities to expand their role in the daily lives of U.S. citizens.

Many are aware that there are excessive and duplicate tests being ordered, there is poor coordination between healthcare facilities and practitioners, there is a lack of shared information and lack of a central data storage center for patients' information, difficulty for patients to learn what their test results are, and a lack of communication between patients and healthcare providers.

One wonders how much of the political rhetoric about health care can actually be realistically accomplished. It is quite evident that someone, somewhere, is going to have to pay if some of the proposed plans are implemented. Once implemented, the U.S. is committed to the programs, which cannot be easily cancelled�which means that more money will be required or fewer services will be delivered.

Some of the reform can be addressed within the profession through electronic data processing and access. Electronic medical records, electronic prescribing, electronic access to an individual's records for test results, electronic scheduling of appointments, etc. would be a big step forward to reforming our current system without government mandates.

Let patients select their source of medication to renew competition between the drug companies instead of third parties dictating what must be used and working out "deals" with the drug companies that benefit them—not the patients. It seems that the only "winners" in the system we have today are the third-party payers and the pharmaceutical companies that are wheeling and dealing with our money at our expense! It seems they are "fueling the fire," as they stand to make a lot of money in "healthcare reform"!

Loyd V. Allen, Jr., PhD, RPh

NHS says 4 cancer drugs too costly to use.
The British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has concluded that four new treatments for advanced kidney cancer -- Sutent, Avastin, Nexavar and Torisel -- are too costly for the National Health Service to use. Patient advocates and kidney specialists criticized the move because it leaves interferon, which was deemed ineffective in many patients, as the sole treatment for NHS beneficiaries.
http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-health-news/2008/08/06/kidney-cancer-drugs-fail-to-get-nhs-approval-65233-21480101/

Britain's Nice to Offer Advice on Drugs for Patients to Buy Privately
Patients are to be given advice on drugs rejected for use on the NHS - so they can choose to buy them privately. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) is drawing up plans to provide patients with independent medical guidance on treatments. It would include drugs that Nice had ruled the NHS should not use because they were too expensive.
http://www.therapeuticsdaily.com/news/article.cfm?contentValue=1822978&contentType=sentryarticle&channelID=33

Physicians gifts must be disclosed in MA
The Governor of Massachusetts has signed into law a healthcare bill that includes a provision requiring pharmaceutical and device companies to disclose all gifts to physicians that exceed $50. Pharmaceutical and biotech firms opposed the legislation, saying it would hinder their research and possibly drive them out of the state. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080811/NEWS/808110325/-1/NEWS01

Look alike and Sound alike drugs still a problem
Mispronunciation of prescription drugs present risks that could prove fatal for some patients. A report from the U.S. Pharmacopeia shows that nearly 1,500 drugs with names that look or sound alike were linked to medication errors, with 1.4% resulting in patient harm, including seven mistakes that may have led to death. "It's just going to get worse with increases in the number of drugs and in the number of unfamiliar names," a geriatric psychiatrist said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20080807/hl_hsn/whatsinanamewhenitcomestodrugsplenty

...it seems that the countries that are dominated by their governments have the lowest standards of living, freedom, product quality standards, and productivity? Quite possibly one of the main reasons the U.S. has been so strong in the past is because of individual freedoms to excel and incentives to produce and accomplish. As the government is making more inroads into our daily lives, it appears that our standards of living, freedom, and productivity are declining.

...it also seems that those in government seem to set their goals for money and power, at the expense of the citizens. This ultimately does away with the middle class, which is woefully lacking in many poor countries as there are primarily only a few rich and multitudes of poor.

...it is time to let your congresspersons know what you think while they are home for a vacation. If they won't talk to you now and do what needs to be done, ignore them at election time and vote for someone that will!

Ten more SOPs added to CompoundingToday.com website, as follows:

New SOPs This Week:

Call a Congressman!
Contact your elected representative or senator this month. You are paying them their salary and their job is to represent you. Let them know what your thoughts are and that you are watching them. If they don't straighten up, they will be "short-timers" (lame-ducks) in DC and back on the outside looking in (while wondering "what happened"?).