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With the U.S. House of Representatives poised to vote on health-care reform in days, the battle over how to fix the nation's health-care system has reached the boiling point.
Meanwhile, most Americans haven't the slightest clue what the 2,400-page H.R. 3590 bill will mean for them if it indeed passes with the help of Congress' controversial budget reconciliation rules. While politicians claim the ultimate goal of health-care reform is to contain the rising cost of health care for families and small businesses while not increasing the national deficit, how to accomplish that goal is anybody's guess.
With some Americans paying health insurance premiums bigger than their mortgages, senior citizens concerned about the bill's impact on Medicare coverage, and some 40 million Americans who have no health insurance (and sometimes no access to care either), it's obvious the system is broken.
How do we fix it?
AOL Health has asked the leaders of some of the nation's top hospitals to give us their take on health-care reform. Here's what they had to say:
David Feinberg, M.D., M.BA.
CEO, UCLA Hospital System
"The debate they're having now in Washington is the wrong discussion," says Feinberg. "They're not talking about health-care reform. They're talking about health insurance reform. The bill in Congress has nothing to do with health care." He explains that health care could be fixed overnight if people would stop using alcohol and drugs, eat right and exercise.
"I have 800 patients in this hospital today, and I bet 50 percent of them have illnesses that could have been completely prevented," Feinberg says. "That situation is not going to get better with a 'public option.'"
He points out that even people without health insurance can receive care when they need it in the emergency room, and, while it's not ideal, they're not being denied care because they don't have health insurance. "It's impossible to give high quality, low cost care to everyone. What we need is to decrease demand for health care."
According to Feinberg, some 75 percent of illnesses are treated at home, whether that's a bad cold or a sprained ankle, and he says that health-care reform should be focused on ho
With the U.S. House of Representatives poised to vote on health-care reform in days, the battle over how to fix the nation's health-care system has reached the boiling point.
Meanwhile, most Americans haven't the slightest clue what the 2,400-page H.R. 3590 bill will mean for them if it indeed passes with the help of Congress' controversial budget reconciliation rules. While politicians claim the ultimate goal of health-care reform is to contain the rising cost of health care for families and small businesses while not increasing the national deficit, how to accomplish that goal is anybody's guess.
With some Americans paying health insurance premiums bigger than their mortgages, senior citizens concerned about the bill's impact on Medicare coverage, and some 40 million Americans who have no health insurance (and sometimes no access to care either), it's obvious the system is broken.
How do we fix it?
AOL Health has asked the leaders of some of the nation's top hospitals to give us their take on health-care reform. Here's what they had to say:
David Feinberg, M.D., M.BA.
CEO, UCLA Hospital System
"The debate they're having now in Washington is the wrong discussion," says Feinberg. "They're not talking about health-care reform. They're talking about health insurance reform. The bill in Congress has nothing to do with health care." He explains that health care could be fixed overnight if people would stop using alcohol and drugs, eat right and exercise.
"I have 800 patients in this hospital today, and I bet 50 percent of them have illnesses that could have been completely prevented," Feinberg says. "That situation is not going to get better with a 'public option.'"
He points out that even people without health insurance can receive care when they need it in the emergency room, and, while it's not ideal, they're not being denied care because they don't have health insurance. "It's impossible to give high quality, low cost care to everyone. What we need is to decrease demand for health care."
According to Feinberg, some 75 percent of illnesses are treated at home, whether that's a bad cold or a sprained ankle, and he says that health-care reform should be focused on ho
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- tags:
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Reaper26
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i actually like the first one comment about this isn't about health care reform is about health insurance reform.
- 1 year ago
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Reaper26
