The Transition Team Asks for Health Care Ideas

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/transition/2008/11/the-transition-team-asks-for-h.html

The Transition Team Asks for Health Care Ideas

By CQ Staff | November 26, 2008 3:20 PM


President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is trying an interesting experiment with Web technology: It is hosting an online discussion where people can sound off about the problems they see with the health care system — and what they think the Obama administration should do to fix them.

It even starts off with a video in which two transition team advisers — Dora Hughes, M.D., and Lauren Aronson, both members of the health care policy working group — ask for feedback from the public.

It’s unusual to see policy aides participating in these kinds of videos, and Hughes and Aronson don’t look entirely comfortable doing it, but Obama did promise that his administration officials would be active participants in the open government he promised on the campaign trail.

The resulting comments have included some thoughtful discussions of the importance of preventive care, the way priorities can get skewed by profit motives, the nursing shortage, the dilemma of who should pay for coverage, and even the need for people to take more responsibility for maintaining their own health. And, of course, there are the usual insults people hurl at each other. (“Enough of this childish, selfish nonsense. If you want to be left to your own devices, you move!”)

The real question, though, is whether the online discussion will produce ideas the Obama health care policy team can use, or whether it will be just another device to let people feel like they’ve been heard. That’s especially true given that the actual health care plan will have to go through Congress, and it’s not clear how many of the key lawmakers (or staff members) will ever see the discussion thread taking place on the transition team Web site right now.

Still, with roughly 1,900 comments so far — in an online discussion that is less than 24 hours old — it seems there are plenty of people who want to make this experiment in high-tech democracy work.

-David Nather


Link to comment:
http://change.gov/page/s/healthcare

[mmonk]

1. I believe there is a single payer proposal already in Congress.

Do they mean send ideas on different ways to use the existing private insurance companies instead of that proposal?

[babylonsister]

6. I think any healthcare-related ideas, suggestions, or even questions

you have will at least be read if not addressed personally.

[Jeanette in FL]

2. What a great idea

Here is a link to Obama's healthcare idea form:

http://change.gov/page/s/healthcare

[babylonsister]

3. Thanks for the link,

Jeanette! I'll add it to the OP. And Happy Thanksgiving! :fistbump:

[Jeanette in FL]

9. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours

:hi:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Well for starters

http://cms.herbalgram.org/commissione/intro/ceherbsingermany.html#BM1_Scientific_Research_and_Medical_Use_


Physician Prescriptions and Reimbursement

All phytomedicines prescribed by a physician must be supplied by pharmacists. According to some estimates, in addition to the 25,000 doctors conducting a natural medical practice, up to 80 percent of German physicians (particularly general practitioners) routinely prescribe phytomedicines as part of clinical therapy (Gruenwald, 1995; Shilcher, 1998b). Prescribed phytomedicines are also known as "semi-ethical" drugs. In 1996 semi-ethical phytomedicine sales constituted 17 percent of total nonprescription drug sales in Germany and 54 percent of all nonprescription phytomedicines (see Table 7). According to the 5th Social Act, phytomedicines that conform to the Commission E positive monographs (approved) are financed by the national health insurance system (Schilcher, 1998c).

In some cases, phytomedicines are preferred to conventional drugs. For drugs prescribed for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), for example, almost 90 percent are phytomedicines, owing mainly to their lower rates of adverse side effects. In the area of physician prescriptions of psychoactive herbal drugs (e.g., St. John's Wort and Kava Kava), the strong increase in medical use is not a result of increased demands from patients but more from "scientific assurances in the form of convincing clinical and pharmacological studies." (Schilcher, 1998b.)


This is a Canadian pharmacy price
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=flomax+price&spell=1
Flomax 0.4mg $0.84 a Pill
www.CanadaPharmacy.com/Flomax Flomax Delivered to your Door Over 2 Million Prescriptions Filled

Vitamin Shoppe
Heart Choice Phytosterols
VS-1779
60 Softgels
OUR PRICE:
$7.99 <------ do the math

As opposed to plant sterols and stanols and their effect on colon cancer, prostate enlargement and cholesterol

http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/pdf%2F7808%2F7808r1.pdf <----- please do read entire paper

>>Foods with plant stanol or sterol esters lower serum cholesterol
levels.
We summarize the deliberations of 32 experts
on the efficacy and safety of sterols and stanols. A
meta-analysis of 41 trials showed that intake of 2 g/d of
stanols or sterols reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL)
by 10%; higher intakes added little. Efficacy is similar for
sterols and stanols, but the food form may substantially
affect LDL reduction. Effects are additive with diet or
drug interventions: eating foods low in saturated fat and
cholesterol and high in stanols or sterols can reduce LDL
by 20%; adding sterols or stanols to statin medication is
more effective than doubling the statin dose.<<

>>CONCLUSIONS
Abundant evidence shows that consuming 2 g/d of sterols
and stanols lowers LDL levels by 10%, and based on epidemiological
data and trials with cholesterol-lowering drugs,
long-term use likely will lower CHD risk by 12% to 20% in
the first 5 years and by 20% over a lifetime. Safety testing
of sterols and stanols has exceeded that of ordinary foodstuffs
that are eaten widely and generally recognized as
safe. Adverse effects of the absorption of plant sterols into
the circulation appear largely hypothetical in adults.<<

[Vinca]

5. Thanks for the link. I wanted to throw in my 2 cents. nt

[dynasaw]

7. We'll See . . .

if we get responses. So many of these sites are PR--gestures that look as if they are paying attention--but postings usually go unanswered into the garbage of cyber space. Nice try, but me . . . the cynic till proven otherwise.

[babylonsister]

8. FYI, this is PE Obama's site, and he's dead serious about getting

feedback. He's encouraging responses from the little people.

[a kennedy]

10. I think Michael Moore started something like this too didn't he???

I'll check his website, here's one: http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/checkup/