According to a new study, Washington is the 10th healthiest state in the nation, up from number twelve, but…
Washington has some problems: Low rates of immunizations of young children and of high school graduates. There is also a high disparity in health outcomes associated with where someone lives.
And I’m guessing the best way to deal with these disparities isn’t to cut 7,700 low income people from our state’s Basic Health Plan. But, you know, if it helps the governor stick to her no new tax pledge, I suppose it’s worth it. Um… right?
Has anyone looked into whether any kids at all are immunized in Alaska? Something funny is going on up there. My guess is that with plunging oil revenues, Gubbernir Palin will cut kids’ health first and gummint giveaways to all her rugged-individualist-self-sufficient-Republican supporters last.
There was an interesting discussion on the Ron Reagan radio show last evening. How much should be paid to extend a life, and for how long? Does the quality of that extended life come into play? Does it make a difference if the payor is paying out of his own pocket, or his insurance company or HMO is paying, or the public is paying through one form or another?
I found it interesting in light of recent personal events. My employer-sponsored insurance company has some new policies. It has decided that if a substitute medication is at least 50% as effective as the preferred medication, but cheaper, it will only pay for the substitute medication. We can’t pay the difference – we either pay the full cost of the preferred medication, or the insurance company pays almost all the cost of the substute medication.
Before this change, my wife’s medications totaled about $350 per month, of which we paid a nominal co-pay. Now it’s down to about $225 per month after this change, but it’s only half as effective. The other half is expected to reduce her life expectancy by about ten years. Remember, we can’t just pay the additional $125 per month, we either accept the drugs provided under the insurance plan, or we pay the full $350 per month ourselves (and climbing).
By the way, there is a relatively safe surgery which will cure the condition, costing about $25,000. The insurance company refuses to pay for this at all, insisting that after 20+ years it is still “experimental” and therefore not covered under the plan. Apparantly they figure it’s more cost effective, for them, to keep paying for medication than to fix the problem. They assume that workers will leave their jobs every two to three years, so then it will be somebody else’s problem. Either that, or the insured will just go ahead and pay for it themselves, saving them money in the process.
So, as we consider the options for our national health care plan, Republicans will argue that you don’t want to have the government making your health care decisions for you. Instead, they would prefer that an insurance company accountant make those decisions for you.
Speaking of which, oil prices have plunged over $100 in just a few weeks, which makes me suspect there was something crooked about this year’s high oil prices, just as crooks were responsible for last year’s high home prices.
Cutting those kids health insurance is a good example of (a?)false economy; it might save a few dollars now, but it will cost us more in the long run.
By the way, remember that when you are talking about “medical costs” or “prescription costs”, it’s not like that’s a well-established number. The drug companies, testing labs, etc. can pretty much charge whatever they want. When’s the last time you got to do a price comparison before your doctor sent out the blood sample to the lab for analysis? And who pays the highest drug cost? The government under the Bush administration’s Medicare Part B drug plan. Next is the uninsured (or under-insured) American. The lowest drug costs in the U.S. are paid by the Veteran’s Administration, which is allowed to negotiate a quantity discount. But ALL of these is far higher than the price paid in virtually every other country in the world, for the same medicines.
Off topic, but a great deal if you’re looking to buy a condo on the east side.
@5
Group Health keeps the cost of prescriptions pretty low.
Michael @ 4: Yep, the Republicans even got mad at “Governor Terminator” for expandinding the free immunizations for children to illegal immigrant children. He pointed out, quite rightly, that having unimmunized children created just as much of a public health hazard whether they were citizens or not. Germs don’t care whether you carry a green card or not.
We have much more lax immunization laws than other states. Some allow no exceptions; many others allow only religious exceptions. We allow ethical exceptions, too.
I doubt our (*relative*) low vaccination rates are primarily because of healthcare issues. I recall reading (I forget where) that the lowest vaccination rate in Washington State is Vashon Island. Need I say more about the demographics here? It ain’t socioeconomics.
I’d like to see how our rate compares to states with similar law, especially when it comes to high school graduates vs. non-.
7 True, but Group Health has priced itself out of much of the market for private-employer health coverage, and their docs have to work pretty hard to justify prescribing anything outside the formulary.
@3 Speaking of which, oil prices have plunged over $100 in just a few weeks
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A month ago light sweet crude oil was just above $70, about $26 above where it is today. It peaked in July just above $147.
Well, if we’re all feeling magnanimous, we should all contribute to a charity that helps those 7,700 cut off from free health care provided by the state.
If the state won’t or can’t do it, the people should pick up the tab. Right?
@6
I was griping a couple of weeks ago that I wanted housing prices to come down 60%. I didn’t think it would actually DO it!
—
Monthly payment: 30 Years
Interest rate: 5.750%
Loan amount: $ 95,000.00
$ 554.39 a month
Republican Mantra: Helping those who can already help themselves!
So nobody saw this coming? The fact that a democrat govt. would cut school funding, healthcare funding? They are politicians. They will cut what’s easy.
They know that in 2 or 3 years the economy will be on the mend and they’ll be able to ride in on their white horses and “raise” the # of children on the state healthcare dime. “Increase” money to schools. They’ll say, “see how much we work for you?” And you all will blissfully forget what is happening right now.
@12:
Actually, there are enough charities in this area such that it would be most effective to see what coordination of activities would help to make any money given most efficiently spent, then rustle up the cash via fundraising.
And yes, I’d kick into that plan. Public health is a necessity in any society that you want to function well – to kick 7700 folks off the rolls, thereby endangering not only their lives, but in effect, providing a higher risk to the rest of society, is a disgrace.
@10
I did not know that. I guess that’s one of the benefits of being healthy.
We have to try less. We need to race to the bottom. Louisiana is 50th. We can do worse than that if Mr Cynical and his cohorts have their way!
Those people being kicked off are just poor and sick. God favors those who are wealthy and healthy. It’s God’s will. Who are we to try to argue with God?
Bring back Debtor’s prison too! Maybe start Soilent Green, that will give those poor and sick a reason to get a job and get healthy!
@2: rhp6033, the situation you describe is completely outrageous. We’ve been talking about a health care crisis for decades, it’s interesting that we’ve finally allowed it to come to this.
It’s human nature of crowds. We let things get worse and worse and worse, until it breaks, and THEN we fix it. We cannot get the political will to do anything proactive. It’s the same principle where someone has to die, before they put in stop light.
how about all fat bloggerz/commenterz go on a diet and workout routine to model for at-risk obese youth?
@21. We let market forces take care of the obese. How many homeless are obese? Not that many!
Besides, on the internet, no one can tell if we are not all fit and thin and handsome and young, with a full head of hair.
Besides, on the internet, no one can tell if we are not all fit and thin and handsome and young, with a full head of hair.
unless of course you go on teevee:)
Merry Solstice, boys & girls!
Steve, months ago, did a triple Lindy off the high board and bobbed up like a turd in the HA punchbowl, which is now the HA cesspool. We were a shining city on a hill. Now, thanks to Steve, we’re a sewer of corruption. Way to go, bro. You’re a credit to your race and to your Democrat Party.
Steve came bob bob bobbing along months ago with a keyboard, too much free time, and GOPedo kink, toxic assets he’s still totally got. Especially the kink. He’s strung out on kink, tweaking and jonesing on kink. It’s where he goes, it’s what he’s got, it’s what he knows. Some people are stuck on stupid; Steve is stuck on stupid and stuck on sick. If he’s imparted sense or sensibility about anything since he’s been here, I missed it.
He says that Democrat Studds the Stud is old news. No, Steve, Democrat Studds is emblematic of Democrats. He did the things and the boys that Republican Mark Foley only hinted at and to. Republicans shamed Foley out of the game. Democrats re-elected Studds over and over until he had the belated decency to die. We expel and expectorate our slime. You extol yours, Spitzer being about the only exception..
We flipped off Klanman David Duke. You put one (Kleagle Robert Byrd) in the Senate. And on the Supreme Court (Hugo Black). And in the White House. (It’s not a smoking-gun certainty that Harry Truman was KKK, but it’s our best guess and a good bet.)
Republicans, too, recruit from the human race. We’re vexed when paleoconvicts and neoconvicts trickle down into the R column instead of the D column, where they belong. Right-wing radio, which you probably want to censor, was righteously indignant about Ted Stevens hanging on. Ditto Dandy Don Young.
When our side gets outed or indicted, we want ’em out. What a concept. Think about it, Steviecrats. Try it.
Monson, high noon, used to be a tard like you, but 9/11 changed him and he grew. Ross, 0900, stayed small.
Monson mentions sometimes that he’s heard some preceding Ross, but he’s never lowered himself to Ross’s level by taking the little bully-pulpit bully apart; by dismembering and deconstructing his nonsense; by demonstrating that if it weren’t for cheap tricks Ross would have no tricks at all, that if it weren’t for non sequiturs Ross would have no sequiturs at all.
Driveby Wisdom Ross today did a dumb driveby on yesterday’s Monson interview with the “art”ist who put McDermott’s ball on the tree. Ross sliced and diced and spliced the tape to make her look good and to make Monson look badly or sadly irrelevant. Or whatever.
Whatever kind of cheap trick or stupid pet trick Ross was trying to do, what he did was Ft. Sumter. Return fire at high noon, Dori. Khan network nukes, if necessary. Ad infinitum.
Might try letting more midwives get in the game of birthing children. Here in Washington only a small fraction of children are brought into the world by midwives. Something around ten percent. In Europe about 70% of births are by midwives and with a higher survival rate and lower costs.
TLG
@26,
Well, kids are a naturally occurring phenom. Just ’cause a high-priced doc is there ain’t gonna stop the kid from popping out. Of course, you have to trade off a little increase in the infant mortality rate, maybe, if you go to more midwives doing the honors. I suspect the docs’ union (the American Medical Association) might bitch about being cut-out of such a lucrative market.
@ 27 the survival rate for infants born with midwives is as high if not hogher than with doctors according to present studies.
tlg