The First Step in Rebuilding America's Health Care System

[kentuck]

The President wants to sign a good health care bill. He wants everyone to be insured. But the question is, how is it to be implemented?

It is not about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It is about taking care of each other as Americans. That is why we agree with the President.

The foundation of our new health care system is already in place. Because, at this time, we have the community health centers but we do not have enough of them or enough doctors for the new system.

At present, we would need two new community health centers for each one that now exists. Also, we would need to re-imburse doctors and nurses for their assistance in the new system. And we would need to balance the locations of the centers geographically.

The benefits would be:

It could put people to work immediately. We own the TARP funds. There are plenty of locations, even commercial, that can be bought at very good prices.

It could also educate more students in the medical and nursing fields. They could re-pay for their education by devoting two years working for a new community health center. This should be our first step, in my opinion.

[TBF]

1. Why not simply remove the age restriction for Medicare and make it available to all? n/t

[kentuck]

2. That could be step two.

:-)

[TBF]

3. At this point I'd accept that - at least we'd be going in the right direction. n/t

[MissMarple]

4. Right now there is no more capacity for med students and residents.

Some kids go abroad but that doesn't address the need either. So far part of the gap has been picked up by Indian and Pakistani doctors. Many rural areas have inadequate or substandard care. This issue must be addressed before there can be a substantive change in our health delivery systems.

[Mike 03]

5. Sounds good. What I would love is to have a community health center

even within 100 miles of my town where I could access state of the art medical equipment and pay in cash so that I can allow the doctors to determine my course of care rather than some insurance company.

I'm becomming a huge fan of medical services that are pay on demand but one where you would have a general practitioner doctor, your own doctor, and not drift from "urgent care" to "urgent care" centers.

[justgamma]

6. To lower costs, may I make a suggestion?

We raised 4 kids and I have 10 Grandkids. They got ear aches and the normal children's wounds. They got home from school at 4:00. Got hurt playing at 5:30 or their ear aches would flair up after supper.

. Doctors close their offices at 5:00. They only place to get medical care at night is the hospital emergency room. If only doctors were available when accidents happen, it would make emergency rooms less used.

[TBF]

7. That is a great suggestion.

I'd like to see more neighborhood style clinics with weekend hours as well. That's when people are off work and can actually go to the doctor without fear of retribution from taking sick days. It would be so much better for all of us if people would receive preventative care, and that's also more likely to happen if clinics are open when people are off work.