Medicaid and medical education

This article is about the cuts that the Bush Administration is proposing on New York's Medicaid. These cuts would limit the amount of training available for doctors and would limit the access that the poor would have to Medicaid. While the Medicaid funding is not supposed to be used to help pay for medical school, it is, and these cuts would make it harder to train the amount of doctors that the people of New York need. The cuts would be as much as $1 billion in New York, but the effect would be felt in other states like California.
I think that there is no way that this cut will go through, there are too many advocates for better health care. I also think that it is bad that the money that is supposed to be for medicaid is used to help doctors get through graduate school. I think that the biggest issue with our health system is that it is about the economy instead of about saving lives. In other countries, doctors are paid low salaries so the only people who become doctors are the ones who care. We need to remember that health care is not a market and that economics should not have an influence over the care that people receive.

Hratocollis, Anemona. "Cuts in medicaid May Mean Billion-DollarLose to New York for Training Doctors." nytimes.com. May 14, 2008. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/nyregion/14cuts.html>

THE WELL PODCAST

This site provides articles and pod casts about different health topics. This particular podcast is about the effect that day care has on children's activity. 50% of the amount of outdoor playtime that a child gets is based on their care center. There are many reasons that children do not get enough exercise. Their parents often send them to day care in clothing that are hard to play in. Another reason is that many of the teachers undermine the importance of playing outside. The teachers are not paid well ans have hard jobs. It makes sense that they would not want to spend their time supervising four year-olds.
I thought that this report was interesting because it showed different causes of health problems. There are a lot of factors that play into our health crisis, but one of the main factors is the environment that we grow up in. Children will live unhealthy lives if they are not taught to eat right and exercise. Obesity is one of the largest problems in our country and cause many health problems. The people with obesity are often the poorer people who cannot afford good food or health care. One of the best ways to help end the health problems in the USA is to teach people to live healthier lives so that they will not need as much emergency care.

Parker-Pope, Tara. The Well Podcast: Childcare and Outdoor Play. nytimes.com. May 8, 2008. <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/the-well-podcast-childcare-and-outdoor-play/>

The circle

Over the course of the year, I have looked at news articles about health care in the United States. I have found that one of the biggest obstacles to achieving universal health care is the circle that our government is going in. The House Democrats and republicans are unable to come to an agreement. When most of them agree that health care needs more funding, they cannot agree on how the money should be used. The republicans are hesitant when it comes to the sum of money that the Democrats want, but eventually they were able to compromise. The next problem is President Bush who has vetoed bills that would increase funding for health care. While much about the next eight years is uncertain, one thing that is certain is that there will be some change in our health care policies, most likely for the better.

These are Statistics about how much different western countries spend on health care. The United States is in a far last second to Denmark which still spends 19% more than we do on health care. This is ridiculous when we are such a large and developed country. We should be spending the most on health care, not the least.

McCain Pushes Choice as Health Care Fix

This article is about McCain's health care plan. While his competitors are proposing ways to provide universal health care coverage, McCain is proposing the opposite. McCain wants to get people to buy their own insurance instead of using that provided by their employers. He would give the people who did this a $2500 to $5000 tax cut. McCain believes that if people have to buy their insurance, it will force insurance companies to reduce their prices and improve the quality of their care. Critics say that McCain's plan has been tried before and has not worked, but he persists.
McCain also wants to increase the availability of preventative treatment and make it harder for patients to sue doctors. McCain's main argument is that if the government provides health care options for people then the people will not have as much choice.
McCain's arguments are not legitimate. With Both Clinton's and Obama's plans, people are able to keep their private insurance, but the government will provide care of those who cannot afford insurance or whose employers do not provide it. McCain proposed a tax cut for people who buy private insurance, but the insurance will cost more than the amount of money that these people save from the tax cut. On the whole, I have no idea how McCain is going to compete with Clinton's or Obama's plan.

Reuters. McCain Pushes Choice as Health Care Fix. Nytimes.com. April 29, 2008. <http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-usa-politics-mccain.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=health+care&st=nyt&oref=slogin>

A Study Finds end-of-life costs in S. Florida are among the highest in the nation

This article is about how much money hospitals in Florida spend on intensive care. These hospitals do many tests on patients, even when they are not necessary. People assume that their health care will be the best at these hospitals, but a recent study showed that this is not the case. The study showed that there are as many deaths at the high cost hospitals as at the low cost ones.
Doctors know that they can make more money by taking more tests. These hospitals are not as focused on patient comfort so much as patient care. The study showed that taking care of comfort is more important than taking tests, but that practice will not stop.
There have been lawsuits about the hospitals misusing medicare and charging incorrectly. Many patients have been decieved into beliveing that the higher costing care is the best care, but this study proves that this is not the case.

Dorschner, John. " A Study Finds end-of-life costs in S. Florida are among the highest in the nation."miamiherald.com. April 27, 2008. <http://www.miamiherald.com/living/health/story/510273.html>

project update

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will work to educate people about the issues with our health care system and possible solutions. So far I am planning to make a small mural outside of a popular restaurant (I have their permission) and I will tell people about the problems as they enter. After I have done this, the restaurant will hang up my mural as a part of a political graffiti wall that they are putting up. I also hope to paint a mural at the Berkeley free clinic however I am only working one step at a time.
The mural displays how the only people with health care are the ones who can pay for it. Everyone else must do without. I hope to educate people on the causes of the issue because everyone has witnessed the problems with our health care system whether personally or from afar.