WI Don't Need Gov't Managed Healthcare
Wisconsin presently has the best health care in the country. Doyle as well as many in Wisconsin state government want to change that. Why? Because they are not much interested in improving health care, only universal coverage. Simply saying that everyone has health insurance is meaningless if it isn't quality care. Making health care free (at least for lower income people) is worth many votes at election time.
If really you think universal coverage is good, look at the waiting lines in Canada. Britain has universal coverage too, but almost 900,000 are waiting for admission to NHS hospitals, with the shortage of care the cause of more that 50,000 operations canceled every year. Sweden has universal health care, but if you need heart surgery the wait can take as long as 25 weeks. Universal Health care is substandard health care in any country around the world that has implemented it.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006 found that while many Americans were not getting a high standard of care, whether or not they had insurance was largely unrelated to the quality of care. Which do you think is less expensive, having the cost of treating the poor passed along to us in higher taxes, or the bureaucracy of government managed health care?
Wise up people. Universal health care does not mean universal access. Access to a list IS NOT access to health care. What universal health care access does mean is access to less quality health care, because that kind of care is rationed health care. Maybe while you wait you should consider how much chronic pain you can stand.
Please watch this five and a half minute video clip.
It seems that there should be something workable without resorting to government run health care which has been a proven failure. Retail clinics are springing up around the nation, and offering easier access to high-quality care at better prices than hospitals and affiliated clinics.
One of the most promising developments is the emergence of retail-based "convenient care" clinics that are providing consumers with easier access to high-quality, routine health care at affordable prices. There are about 400 such clinics today and could be several thousand more in the next few years, but their growth is being threatened by burdensome regulations in some states and opposition from some corners of organized medicine.
Convenient care clinics are small health-care facilities with new brand names like RediClinic, MinuteClinic, and Take Care Health Clinics. Most are located in high-traffic retail outlets with pharmacies, such as Wal-Mart, CVS and Walgreen stores. Regional health-care systems have also opened retail-based clinics in their service areas, either directly or in partnerships with independent operators. These clinics generally are staffed by certified nurse practitioners who diagnose, treat and prescribe medications for a limited set of common ailments, such as strep throat and ear infections. They also administer health screenings, medical tests, immunizations, basic physical exams and other preventive care.
Convenient care clinics have been embraced by consumers, who give them consistently high marks for patient satisfaction: 97% of the more than 4,000 RediClinic patients surveyed this year said they would recommend RediClinic to their relatives and friends. This is because the clinics are delivering something that is all too rare in our system — convenient and affordable health care.
The quality of care at convenient care clinics stems from their use of nationally certified nurse practitioners, who are registered nurses with master's degrees or comparable advanced training. Research over the past 30 years has consistently shown that the primary care provided by nurse practitioners is comparable in quality to that provided by physicians, though nurse practitioners are still required to collaborate with local physicians in most states.
Patients who have conditions that are outside of convenient care clinics' limited scope of practice, or who need ongoing care, are referred to local physicians, and nurse practitioners use evidence-based treatment protocols and electronic medical-record systems to standardize care and facilitate continuity of care when other clinicians are involved. According to a recent study conducted by the RAND Corporation, Americans receive evidence-based care only 55% of the time at conventional health-care delivery outlets. MinuteClinic's recent analysis of 58,000 sore-throat cases seen at their clinics showed that the diagnosis and treatment conformed to evidence-based guidelines 99.15% of the time.
Convenience is assured through the location of the sites and the fact that they are open seven days a week, including extended hours on weekdays. No appointments are necessary, and visits take only about 15 minutes due to the clinics' limited set of services. The clinics' location in stores with pharmacies provides additional convenience because patients can go across the aisle to get their prescriptions filled rather than having to make separate trips for this purpose.
Convenient care clinics are small health-care facilities with new brand names like RediClinic, MinuteClinic, and Take Care Health Clinics. Most are located in high-traffic retail outlets with pharmacies, such as Wal-Mart, CVS and Walgreen stores. Regional health-care systems have also opened retail-based clinics in their service areas, either directly or in partnerships with independent operators. These clinics generally are staffed by certified nurse practitioners who diagnose, treat and prescribe medications for a limited set of common ailments, such as strep throat and ear infections. They also administer health screenings, medical tests, immunizations, basic physical exams and other preventive care.
Convenient care clinics have been embraced by consumers, who give them consistently high marks for patient satisfaction: 97% of the more than 4,000 RediClinic patients surveyed this year said they would recommend RediClinic to their relatives and friends. This is because the clinics are delivering something that is all too rare in our system — convenient and affordable health care.
The quality of care at convenient care clinics stems from their use of nationally certified nurse practitioners, who are registered nurses with master's degrees or comparable advanced training. Research over the past 30 years has consistently shown that the primary care provided by nurse practitioners is comparable in quality to that provided by physicians, though nurse practitioners are still required to collaborate with local physicians in most states.
Patients who have conditions that are outside of convenient care clinics' limited scope of practice, or who need ongoing care, are referred to local physicians, and nurse practitioners use evidence-based treatment protocols and electronic medical-record systems to standardize care and facilitate continuity of care when other clinicians are involved. According to a recent study conducted by the RAND Corporation, Americans receive evidence-based care only 55% of the time at conventional health-care delivery outlets. MinuteClinic's recent analysis of 58,000 sore-throat cases seen at their clinics showed that the diagnosis and treatment conformed to evidence-based guidelines 99.15% of the time.
Convenience is assured through the location of the sites and the fact that they are open seven days a week, including extended hours on weekdays. No appointments are necessary, and visits take only about 15 minutes due to the clinics' limited set of services. The clinics' location in stores with pharmacies provides additional convenience because patients can go across the aisle to get their prescriptions filled rather than having to make separate trips for this purpose.
The problem is that regulations on retail convenient care clinics varies state to state, and many states are trying to at least regulate if not eliminate them. Recently on this forum I posted about Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino trying to block retailers from opening medical clinics inside stores in Massachusetts, contending that making money off of sick people is wrong. I have to wonder if he thinks doctors should work for gratis. The American Medical Association is pushing for government intervention to reduce the spread of retail convenient care clinics.
I guess I have ranted long enough on this, but it really bothers me that people do not understand the dangers of government managed health care.