Healthcare Links: McAllen, TX

Since we’re talking healthcare I thought I’d share a few more links from around the web today. Jason over at kottke.org posted an update to a previous kottke.org post linking to articles on issues around healthcare costs in the U.S. healthcare system. The first linked article is from the New Yorker and profiles McAllen, Texas, the most expensive city for healthcare in the U.S. The primary point to the New Yorker article is the view that McAllen’s expensive healthcare is due to “overutilization”, the practice of over-testing, over-treating and defensive medicine. One of the critques of the New Yorker piece is that it didn’t address the poverty and unhealthy populace. The author of the original responds here. It’s all really good stuff and should help those who have commented on blurbomat™ the past few days in our conversation on healthcare reform.

The kottke.org updates also include a link to this 2008 video of Dr. Peter Orszag’s lecture to the Illinois College of Business. Dr. Orszag is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the White House.

NPR’s Talk of the Nation’s Science Friday talked about healthcare reform and cost control last Friday, mentioning McAllen among other things. Listen here.

It’s clear that the solutions ahead will involve every area of the existing healthcare environment. Cost cuts, salary, tort reform, tuition help (including a living expense grant/help), patient education and more. With all of the powerful lobbies involved, it’s going to take a vocal populace to move forward.

  • http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/list/tim.html tthomas48

    Texas has had tort “reform”. No change from what we can tell. Except the insurance companies are making more money. No change for Doctors and patients.

    It’s a red herring. In Texas it was actually a way to defund Democrats who generally get the majority of their campaign contributions from lawyers. So tort “reform” cut down revenue for lawyers, but in no way reduced costs for doctors or patients.

    • http://blurbomat.com blurb

      I tend to agree about tort reform, but I think tort reform should be a part of the solution.

      From the New Yorker piece:

      Several years ago, Texas passed a tough malpractice law that capped pain-and-suffering awards at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Didn’t lawsuits go down?

      “Practically to zero,” the cardiologist admitted.

      “Come on,” the general surgeon finally said. “We all know these arguments are bullshit. There is overutilization here, pure and simple.” Doctors, he said, were racking up charges with extra tests, services, and procedures.

  • http://noise-etcetera.blogspot.com/ noise-etcetera.blogspot.com/

    In contrast to most of the health care debate that I’ve heard, this article actually seems thoughtful, data-based, non-accusatory, non-preachy, and free of a pre-conceived agenda.

    I especially liked the author’s discussion of how providing health care is like building a house – in which he also debunks the particularly pernicious myth that the crisis is the patients’ fault: if only we’d force people to pay for their own health care (the sermon goes), people would stop spending all their free time at the doctor, running up bills!

    Explains the author, “…changing who pays the doctor will make no more difference than changing who pays the electrician,” or even who the electrician is, for that matter. You need a good contractor.

    I hope lots of important people read this article!

  • http://miniaturerose.blogspot.com miniaturerose

    One of the fear-mongering tactics employed during the Presidential election was to twist one of the things that Obama purportedly said – something along the lines of accepting the aging process – as proof positive that health care would be rationed, and before you know it, we’ll be pushing Gramma off onto an ice floe, blahblahblah.

    I’ve been thinking about this scare tactic in the light of that report out of McAllen. I’m inclined to think that many of the elderly members of our society are over-treated, to their great detriment.

    Full disclosure: I’m a Registered Nurse, but I speak only for myself and not for my hospital or for any professional organization.

    I find myself cringing when I make my nightly medication passes. All too often, I dispense Statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs) like Zocor to octogenarians. While I do not wish a heart attack on anyone, I have to wonder if it really matters that an 87 year old’s cholesterol is 215. Furthermore, a side effect of Statins is rhabdomyolysis – a painful breakdown of muscle tissue. I have no empirical evidence to back this up, but I do believe that this leads to a much greater risk of falling and fracturing a hip. Given my druthers, I’d rather leave this world with the bang of a cardiac event than with the slow wimper of a fractured hip.

    The time to step back and ask questions about the direction that health care in this country is taking is now. I’m glad that you are using your platform to participate in this discussion, and look forward to reading more of your point of view. Thanks for allowing me to ramble.

  • la_florecita

    I was just listening to a podcasted episode of Fresh Air about McAllen’s healthcare last week! I need to find the article in Spanish so I can send it to my in-laws in McAllen.