I know what youre thinking...youre thinking: I know JUST what I need today--a 20-something page pdf of a speech about the health care system, from 2011! :-) But seriously, read this. It is stirring, informative, and--well--brutal. Once I got past the first page or so of acknowledgement-y blah-dee-dah, I was absolutely riveted--and literally couldnt stop reading til I got to the end. Just a taste, to maybe pique ya: “If you really want to talk about ‘death panels,’ let’s think about what happens if we cut back programs of needed, life-saving care for Medicaid beneficiaries and other poor people in America. What happens in a nation willing to say a senior citizen of marginal income, ‘I am sorry you cannot afford your medicines, but you are on your own?’... “It boggles my mind that the same people who cry ‘foul’ about rationing an instant later argue to reduce health care benefits for the needy, to defund crucial programs of care and prevention, and to shift thousands of dollars of annual costs to people – elders, the poor, the disabled – who are least able to bear them.” Read it. Not just because the situation impacts ALL of us, but because the next few years will see the success or failure of our ability to provide health care for the nation...or basically go off a cliff that our status quo currently is aimed squarely at, and accelerating towards. The ACA is just a law. A law is just a beginning, a framework: it needs to be filled out by real people in real places. What kind of health care delivery organizations are we going to support in our communities, by voting with our bodies? After all...we are the patients. So this isnt about the cynics, the idiots--or even the decent people--in Washington; this is about YOU, and the people you love: YOUR moms checkups, YOUR sons ear medications, YOUR uncles dementia. YOUR healthcare premium costs. YOUR quality of care. Its about starting to come to grips with how we will change the *systems* currently in place (which--spoiler alert--SYSTEMS RESIST CHANGE BY THEIR VERY NATURE, even if no one does it on purpose), and replace them with ones that will perform better. This will take agility and boldness and fearlessness, and--unfortunately--swiftness...and the knowledge that we really have no choice. This is doable. Whether well do it or not? Thats the zillion dollar question. healthcarechaplaincy.org/userimages/IHI-FINAL-Forum-2011-Berwick-Plenary.pdf
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 17:01:56 +0000
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