food for thought

Stop the looting of the health system ?

"It was clear to both of us that the only way to make health care more affordable is to diminish the role of third-party payers. Let consumers and providers interact through market forces to drive down prices and drive up quality, like we do when we buy groceries, clothing, cars, computers, etc. Drop the focus on prepaid health plans and return to the days of real health insurance—that covers major, unforeseen events, leaving the everyday expenses to the consumer—just like auto and homeowners' insurance."

more  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324139404579017113415486176

fixing the broken windowsw in the hospital system

Good insights and solutions to fix the care gap 

check this out -patient respect and empathy with dignity a magic solution

http://scrubsmag.com/donna-karans-ready-to-wear-hospital-gown/

Use your Brain do not kill it with drugs

I have to agree with this

"The more drugs you take, the more your gray matter turns to mush, according to scans on the brains of 514 seniors at a memory clinic. The more gray matter you lose, the less brain you have — and the less brain you have, the higher your risk of memory loss, cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease."

see more  

Sin taxes do not work (from the Douglas report )

August 11, 2013

Sin taxes don’t lead to healthier choices
You can tax people into poverty. But you sure as heck can’t tax people into good health.
Of course, the Nanny State is trying anyway with taxes on salt, fat and sugar, supposedly to force people to eat and drink better and lose weight.
Yeah, right.
This is really about raising cash, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It sure as heck isn’t about health, because every single study I’ve ever seen on this shows that these taxes DON’T WORK!
When soda is taxed, for example, some people will just pay more for soda. Others will drink less soda, but one new study shows they don’t swap their cola for carrot sticks.
Nope, they just replace the empty calories in soda with different empty calories — cheaper, untaxed empty calories, according to the study in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
So what next? Tax those calories, too? You bet they will… and then it becomes a game of whack-a-mole. Or maybe tax-a-mole — because the powers-that-be would have to keep taxing the “next bad thing” people turn to for cheap snacks.
But forget whether or not this even works, because there’s a much bigger problem here — and that’s the very idea that the government should be deciding what you should eat and drink, and PUNISHING you for making the wrong choices.
Sure, today it’s soda, which we can all agree is garbage.
But mark my words: If they get away with this today, then tomorrow it’ll be butter, cheese, milk, steak and all the GOOD foods they’re already trying to stop you from eating.
That’s why it’s critical to stand up for your right to eat and drink what you want now — and when you hear about a “sin” tax of any kind coming to your community, speak up pronto.
The time to stop this is NOW — because if you wait, it’ll be too late.

The right to know?

Imagine walking into a supermarket to buy cereal. In this supermarket, all the cereal boxes are blank; no one will tell you how much anything costs; and even after you check out, you don’t receive the bill for more than a month. That is exactly the situation for the health care shopper: they do not know what they are buying or what they will pay when they go to the doctor or hospital. In a world in which people will be asked to pay more out of pocket – either because they are a municipal worker retiree being moved to a new plan or one of the millions of private sector workers on higher deductible insurance plans – it is essential that they have good price and quality data to make educated health care decisions.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130805155510-28646375-all-consumers-deserve-health-care-transparency