http://staging.wellness.com/blog/20181/personal-care-community-vol-1-no-3/donald-mcgee
PERSONAL CARE COMMUNITY: NATIONAL HEALTHCARE REFORM
While there may be a number of serious concerns w/respect to all 5 Federally proposed Legislative Initiatives, ANY viable National Healthcare Reform Scenario must address ALL of the following:
1. PROSPECTIVE FUNDING: we need an incremental, cautious & carefully crafted budget that guarantees Tax-payers that this 1-1.5 TRILLION dollar expenditure:
* WILL NOT add to the National deficit (current projections up from 7.1 Trillion to 10 trillion over the next 10 years)
* WILL NOT burden the next 2-3 generations w/outrageous debt
* WILL NOT raise taxes either for businesses (large or small), or for Individuals (either "Affluent" or not)
2. PROVIDER PAYMENTS: we need to be assured that our Provider Community (Doc's, Hospitals, speciality Providers et al) WILL NOT suffer undue fiscal harm due to Federal oversight &/or administration of a "Public Health Plan &/or Co-op":
*Providers' currently receive anywhere from 61-91% of the healthcare dollar from Government run plans, while cost shifting is up to 130% to the Private Marketplace
3. A CLEAR DEFFINITION OF WHO ARE THE "UNINSURED", numbers range from 8 Million to 50 Million
*are they actually UNINSURED;
*are they Under-insured;
*are they those who have chosen to NOT participate in their employer's plans;
*are they individuals who simply rely upon the "Pro-bono" generosity of our local providers & tax-payers
*what % of this number may be attributable to "illegal-aliens"
4. Do we have enough PCP resources to accommodate the surge of newly insureds' ??
*Lesson form Mass. re:Mandated Individual Healthcare, the state didn't have an adequate # of PCP's, Nurses, Family Practice Docs resulting in overwhelmed (closed to new patients)
Physician practices & longer ER waiting time
*U.S. enrollment in Family Practice Med. school students has dropped 52% since 1997: most have gravitated to higher paying Specialties
*PCP shortage by 2010 is expected to be approx. 40,000
5. Recommendations for reform:
*Level the Private marketplace playing field: remove all pre-ex. clauses from all Group & Individual contracts
*Provide for Portability of all Contracts
*Offer a greater variety of choice down to the Individual/Employee level
*Unilaterally remove lifetime caps.
*Handle Medicare deficit separately
greta
Posted by greta m. cocco
http://staging.wellness.com/blog/20181/personal-care-community-vol-1-no-3/donald-mcgee
Dr. Don,
You could not have relayed your public message more succinctly !! Healthcare IS Personal: access, affordability & individual plan design are all parts of the missing link in today's healthcare arena. The most recent HOT topic of conversation in our country has revolved around "Reform" & "Change"; sadly, often times, our politicians become so engaged w/the blame game they lose sight of the goal. There is not 1 Political Party, not 1 Providers Assoc., not 1 Insurance CEO, not 1 Business Entity that has "THE" answer.
Ironically much of the discussion revolves around the very same & simple constructs that you & I hold to be true: Wellness initiatives, personal choice & availability of meaningful data must be an integral part of any reform laid upon the table. Contrary to much of what is being espoused, the Insurance Industry is prepared to be part of the solution & not the problem. The Provider Community (Doc's, Hospitals, Pharma et al) are prepared to do their part, as is true of our Regulators & Legislators. Now is the time for Consumer engagement.
Our elected officials have been sent to our State's Capitals & to D.C. to represent the will of their voting constituents: it is up to us to communicate to them how we feel w/respect to any Government intervention re: Healthcare reform---in favor of, opposed to, or just confused. Wellness may be defined as the absence of pain & fear: to this end, if we do not stop the useless finger-pointing game then no one will win.
The Personal Care Community has the opportunity to engage all interested parties in meaningful, respectful, and & healthy dialogue. First, let's help allay people's financial fears (the economy, job-loss, retirement), their worries (inadequate,cost prohibitive & acessability of premiere healthcare), and their concerns (Proposed Taxes, the deficit & proper representation). Second: let's get to work w/helping consumers' glean a more balanced, prevention focused & disease management-oriented lifestyle.
We can be part of a dynamic revolution which serves to morph today's antiquated systems , we can help coach our audience in an effort to identify where their Wellness practices have fallen short, and we can offer the wisdom of experts from all walks of life to help w/a results oriented action plan.
Posted by greta m. cocco
http://staging.wellness.com/blog/20181/personal-care-community-vol-1-no-3/donald-mcgee
Posted by BYOURBEST
http://staging.wellness.com/blog/20181/personal-care-community-vol-1-no-3/donald-mcgee
I would like to discuss my experience with the "I" in INTEGRAL - Inflammation Control. I have been an athlete all of my life and as a result have experienced many injuries. I have had major surgeries on both knees from basketball and skiing injuries, shoulder injuries created from football collisions, and disc compression from the miles of running on hard ground and in bad shoes. At the age of 44, I always had pain all over my body. Getting out of bed was difficult, standing after sitting for short periods of time was hard, changes in temperature was the worst. In 2007, I met the CEO of Sierra Life Sciences, Inc. She introduced me to a product that would change my life. Sierra Life Sciences, Inc distributes an anti-inflammatory supplement called Alpha Flex with Omega-5. I learned that it was the inflammation that has been causing the pain and discomfort for all of these years. I began taking 6 capsules a day and weaned down to my current level of 3 capsules per day. This was over 20 months ago. I am now 46 years old and weigh 230lbs and feel better than I ever have. I rarely have pain or discomfort and bounce out of bed every morning. My knees feel rebuilt and I never have shoulder or back pains. If I know ahead of time that I will be participating in a physically demanding activity, I'll take some extra Alpha Flex capsules. I'll treat any discomfort after an activity with Alpha Flex lotion. I don't take advil, aleve, tylenol, glucosamine, etc. for any discomfort. All I take is Alpha Flex and a Multi-vitamin daily. I encourage everyone in the wellness community to try Alpha Flex. The phone # at Sierra Life Sciences is 775-352-2099. Please visit Alphaflex .com for more information about this great product. Jerome Jacky
Posted by BYOURBEST
