Sunday, May 9, 2010

Just for Mother's Day

Friday, April 30, 2010

Health care reform insight

So I heard a cool feature on NRP the other day about healthcare reform. It's a guy named James Morone, a Poli Sci professor at Brown University talking about the effects of the health care reform and some other interesting insights into the functioning of the government... have a listen when you get a chance.  Click on the link below and then click the "play" button.

http://www.radioopensource.org/index.php?s=Morone

Friday, March 26, 2010

Thoughts

Hello all my biggest fans!! So it looks like Blogger has some new templates out, which is awesome! That means no more Lebron, but what can you do, my blog looks tight!

So, life is good! I am struggling through some fairly boring material for school right now... it's pertinent and important, but not really basic science oriented and with boards coming up now in less than 3 months (which is absolutely crazy) I am not too excited about learning strictly clinical stuff that I can pick up in 3rd year when I have so much science to review (and frankly a lot to learn due to either my laziness or poor teaching or probably a combination of both). Clinic is great though! I feel confident with my oral presentations and confident seeing patients and getting historys and doing basic physicals, so that's good. I saw a wrist surgery in an orthopedic office yesterday too and man, that was an experience... just to see this old guy twitching on the table because the anesthesia wasn't quite strong enough and then having his wrist chopped open and seeing how the surgeon saws through the bone and then sets it back in place. Surgery is pretty cool, but crazy!

So I have been trying to look more into Obama's Health care plan and understand what it means to us and what I think about it and I am just pretty confused overall.  I mean, the plan doesn't introduce universal health care, and doesn't seem to even step in that direction, and it doesn't really expand coverage that much or make it easier for people to get coverage... it seems to just make it illegal for people not to have the horrible insurance that is out there right now.  There are some good things though, limiting insurance companies ability to drop people when they get sick, denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, and some other good things that I don't remember now.  Overall though, it seems like politics are at a point in this country where we are so divided over priorities that the only legislation that can pass is just an ugly hybrid of what the president wants and trying to please the opposition.

So, I think Obama genuinely wants what is best for this country, I am not sure that taxes and bigger government are the way to do it, but I do feel like he thinks he is doing what is best for the country... and I appreciate that.  Although I agree more with the conservative policies and practices of the republicans, I don't get that same feeling from them.  Bush, McCain, even Palin and Romney, I just feel like they are just after money or glory or respect or something other than the best interest of the American people... maybe i am way off, but that is the vibe I get from them... am I alone on that?

So, health care reform... good.  Was it done correctly?  I don't know.  Washington is SO bi-partisan right now that maybe the way they pushed the bill through was the only way to do anything.  I do think, though, that what this country needs is not increased taxes and extended coverage, but tort reform, increased competition across state lines for insurance companies, regulation of insurance companies as far as dropping people goes, and then for some of these conservative people to step and give the people a better option than private, for-profit insurance.  If they say the market can fix the problems we have right now, then show us how it will work.  Make it happen instead of standing on the sidelines and yelling at the Liberals while millions of people in this country (including illegals) suffer or cost the tax payer millions of dollars with unnecessary ER visits they can't pay for.  Let's extend primary care coverage and help people be healthy instead of treating disease.  Let's allow the market to take care of the problems with health insurance but take the steps necessary to facilitate that... I am Canadian, we have universal health care in Canada and I think it works amazing up there!  But this is not Canada and I just don't think the people here would benefit from that type of system, they are just different.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for now... I would appreciate any more thoughts on this stuff and clarification because I haven't really formed an opinion yet, I am just try to figure out what I think.

Monday, February 15, 2010