healthcare

I finally got around to reading all of Jill Long Thompson's health care proposal, and there's definitely some good elements there. I'm glad to see Democrats finally catching on to framing health care as a crucial economic issue, and there's elements of this frame throughout the proposal:

• The title: "Reforming Our Health Care System To Grow Indiana’s Economy" (emphasis added)
• A health purchasing pool (modeled after Ohio's COSE health insurance pool) that mentions individual coverage but focuses on small business.
• "In order to grow our economy and create good jobs, we must address all aspects of economic development and that includes access to quality affordable health care coverage."
• "When employers can no longer afford to make premium payments, our workers and their families, as well as our communities, suffer."

In addition, the plan contains a shot at Daniels' efforts to sell off every state asset: "Protect Hoosiers From Harm by Privatization. The Daniels administration, under the guise of ‘modernization’, has created unsurpassable barriers to care through the systematic denial of benefits by privatized employees to Hoosiers who are eligible for Medicaid and other programs."

Her plan also focuses on using technology - to increase information sharing and increase the quality of rural care.

All together, it's a pretty good plan - albeit one we should have adopted 10-15 years ago. It's a baby step in the right direction, but it's leaps and bounds past anything proposed by Bush's Man Mitch.

Her web page also provides a form to leave feedback about her plan. What advice do you have for our next governor?

I missed this when it came out a couple weeks back, but it's still worth a read now. Dr. Rob Stone, director of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan - who spoke to DFMC last year - made a statement at the Wellpoint Shareholders' Meeting that hits all the right points and frames the issue brilliantly. As he wrote on the HCHP blog:

Who recalls the poem “Ozymandias” by Shelley from high school English class? (you can Wikipedia it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias) The poem tells the story of a traveler finding a broken statue in the desert, a forgotten wreckage. On the pedestal the words appear: ”My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” This was our message to the stockholders of WellPoint. Yes, you may seem high and mighty today, but soon you will be dust and wreckage in the desert. This is how we should be reframing the question when we hear, “But the insurance companies are so powerful. We will never be able to see real change. They will crush us.” The last lines of the poem:

“Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

I've added the HCHP blog to our blogroll - stop by and read up on the great work that this group is doing.