Comments on: Memo to Obama: Here’s How to Do Healthcare Stimulus

By: MsAnnaNOLA

MsAnnaNOLA — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:23:41 +0000

It seems as I have been reading more and more often that such and such drug is no longer available because “somebody” decided it is not as effective.

I ran into this the other day when I found out that Kaopectate’s formula has been changed entirely since the 90’s. “They” decided that the ingredient is not as effective as bismuth. So now we have only one choice.

It seems to me that if something works that the people should be able to decide what is effective or not.

By: wickedpissah

wickedpissah — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:44:42 +0000

I’d be interested to see people who time out of COBRA to get put onto Medicare. Or people who otherwise can’t afford COBRA to qualify.

The back way in.

Lack of universal health care is crippling the economy. Too many of us cannot participate as capitalists, as entrepreneurs, because we can’t afford the health care.

Have a family member with cancer? Not independently wealthy? No capitalism for you!

By: RevBev

RevBev — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:14:51 +0000

It is pretty amazing…like nursing home divorces to protect old age assets, or not getting married to maintain one’s own. The old “man in the house” rule; how quaint. I had almost forgotten; I have some long ago welfare/food staff background as well. Of course, everyone knew there was a man in the house.

By: Marion in Savannah

Marion in Savannah — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:04:42 +0000

The sad thing is that we’re forced into such subterfuges just so we can get health care. Sucks, you know. And it puts me in mind of the destruction of the black family structure when women couldn’t get food stamps or welfare to help care for their children if there was a man in the household.

By: MsAnnaNOLA

MsAnnaNOLA — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:03:25 +0000

I really don’t think that millionares getting social security is a huge problem. I do think that if we start having an income limit or test of some sort it will immediately begin to undermine the support for this program.

Part of the reason people support it is because many people rightly believe that they have “paid into” the system their whole lives and therefore they are not taking some government handout they are just getting back what they “paid in”. In this way it is not easily dismissed the way welfare programs are.

If we change who gets benefits this will start the undermining and will eventually lead to it being dismantled.

By: RevBev

RevBev — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:00:52 +0000

That’s great…I have a friend who has done almost the opposite…not together, not divorced…keeps insurance coverage.

By: MsAnnaNOLA

MsAnnaNOLA — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:58:27 +0000

I think maybe things could be learned from New Orleans post Katrina. There has been lots and lots of out of the box thinking about medicine and medical schooling with the main teaching hospital, charity hospital, destroyed after Katrina.

I went to my ENT one day and he had a student there doing the appointments with him. This was out of the blue as he had never done this before. I think that he is pitching in with helping the students get the experience they need. Many many facilities that don’t normally do this could do this quickly if they wanted to.

There are no plans to re-build charity as it was. There is a new complex planned but it will be so long from now who knows what healthcare will look like by then.

By: Marion in Savannah

Marion in Savannah — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:57:09 +0000

Mercifully Mr. Marion in Savannah pays virtually nothing for medications, since his sole source of income is Social Security. (Long story short, we were divorced years ago, but got back together. We also were smart enough not to make it legal for reasons just like this.) I spin the prayer wheels daily that my health holds up after I retire, or that Obama gets rid of the donut hole. Thanks for the clarification.

By: Synoia

Synoia — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:53:37 +0000

3) Start up a medical scholarship program.

Import the doctors from Cuba. castro has done a good job of generating trained doctors. And they speak spanish, so serving a underserved community.

By: aliasofwestgate

aliasofwestgate — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:50:10 +0000

Spiriva is just being watched more closely because its been showing some signs in studies as not being quite so effective for COPD as they hyped it to be. The old CFC albuterol inhalers? Those are no longer on the market, they were discontinued because of that CFC propellant entirely last year. Nobody will manufacture them at all now. Which leaves us with HFA type propellant which is much better for the environment, but it wreaks havoc on everyone’s pocketbook. Because the corporations rob you blind for something you need badly. The inhalers are still around, and never will be completely gone. It took them a solid year to get the HFAs completely phased in. But i still find the cost extortionate and it SHOULD be going down, especially with the overall demand and need for albuterol emergency inhalers.