Progressive Health

Welcome.  Glad you’re here.  Consider this a virtual office visit. I have all the time in the world for you.

What brings you here today?

How do you feel?

What are your pressing health concerns?

Are you aware of what you should be doing to keep yourself healthy?  Do you have the resources to do those things?

How’s your relationship with the professional who care for you?  Do you have a primary physician or nurse practitioner?  Are you happy with the diagnostic services available to you?

Instead of my daily dharmaceutical (thanks, homo neurotic, for that fabuloso name)outrage rant, I’d like to open this up as a free-for-all about the issues you would like to have explored about health, health care, health policy and progressive action.

I’m a health wonk who used to work on the inside of the industry.  I now just observe, investigate and blog about it. There are so many reasons to be outraged that I will be able to blog ad nauseum and not cover all of the issues.

So help me out. 

What do you want to discuss?

What are the issues that progressives need to understand?

What are the issues that progressives need to move forward?

How can I help?

How can you help?

I wrote a couple of links fest posts, and if you need to get your imagination jogged, please take a look at my previous posts and see if there’s anything in them that’s near and dear to your heart.

For starters, here are some stats to help your blood pressure rise.

28,000 preventable deaths each year in the US from regular influenza (36,000 total deaths)

47 million uninsured Americans

75 million more under-insured Americans

Medical expenses constitute the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.

Medicaid reimbursement rates are below cost incurred by physicians; a child died from a brain abscess as a result from a simple tooth infection; no dentist could be found who would accept the patient, and his mother had repeatedly applied for Medicaid eligibility for him – the paperwork was lost.

There is a provision in the S-CHIP reauthorization that may cut Medicare physician reimbursement up to 10%; thousands of physicians will cut back the number of Medicare patients they see.

Over 50% of all inpatient psychiatric care is delivered in prisons.

OK – enough from me.  Tell me about yourself.  I’ll hold your hand, hand you tissues if you need to cry, and I’ll be here listening and caring….

As Buhdy says, let’s be excellent to each other.  Now it’s your turn.