Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis
	Author: Tom Daschle Published: 2008-02-19
	List price: $23.95 Our price: $2.36	Usually ships in 24 hours As of: September 09th, 2010 07:04:55 AM
Customer comments on this selection. Read it for the detailed history of health-care reform Daschle wrote this book and was originally tabbed for HHS Secretary as a result of it. A healthcare professional has told me that his recommendation of a healthcare overseer much like the Federal Reserve is for the banking sector doesn't make sense so I decided to read for myself. Although his ideal of the Federal Health Board would make many Americans uncomfortable, the issue Daschle drives towards is consistency of coverage across all options and, similar to Dr. Dean, a requirement that no one that wants to purchase health insurance be turned down or dissuaded from purchasing due to unreasonable premiums. What I gained from this book that was not in the Dean book is the detail to which former Senator Daschle describes the history of healthcare in this country, going back to Harry Truman's plan in the late 1940's. This book is worth reading for that chapter on the history of healthcare reform alone. Not bad for a politician, but we need a doctor's point of view. Daschle is a politician, not a health care professional. His book is therefore naturally self-serving and not authoritative. For the views of a real physician in the trenches of private practice, fighting against the insurance companies on behalf of his patients every step of the way, see Losing My Patience: Why I Quit the Medical Game by Mickey Lebowitz, M.D. Perspective on Critical-What Can We Do About the Health-Care Crisis Senator Daschle and his policy friends are advocates for a healthcare reform agenda that is based on a Federal Healthcare Board. This board would help address the political deadlock on serious reform, along with cost/value, quality and access issues that continue to haunt the U.S. healthcare system. Perspective... to Prescription The author covers a 60-year history of healthcare reform efforts, reflecting on the challenges that stem from the technical, social, political, market and economic factors that are part of a fragmented system. He proposes a mixed public-private model for healthcare, shaped by a central Federal Healthcare Board that will guide policy on many important fronts: 1. National Quality Standards... 2. Universal Coverage and Access... 3. Evidence-Based Practices, with Resolve... 4. Emphasis on High-Value Services... 5. Effective EMR-Driven Communication... Daschle and his co-authors provide a fair definition of the problems along with context that is often missing in reform conversations. While he does not promise specific results or progress measures, his FHB agenda points to relative improvements and enhancements. Daschle maintains the importance of the centralized power of government as the only change engine that can move the reform agenda in the United States. This is a well-documented book, with references that range from Mechanic, Davis, Emanuel, Fuchs, Enthoven and his policy bench leader and co-author, Jeanne Lambrew. There could be better coverage of the market-based reform alternatives, but the author's perspective is one that steers away from political confrontation; that is the main trust of his prescription, after all. Critical is a practical book for open conversation on healthcare reform. Superficial analysis of a subject that deserves better Lots of good reviews here. My synopsis: 1) A lot of folks aren't covered, with tragic consequences [well written and convincing]. 2) Congress can't pass a detailed reform bill because any proposal will die by a thousand cuts in the political meat grinder [also convincing]. 3) An insulated bureaucracy should be given broad reform power [not convincingly argued]. It disturbs me that if this proposal were accepted, we would have very poor visibility into what the system would look like. That's a big leap of faith considering what's at stake. Eventually this subject becomes intensely personal for us all. There is vastly more thoughtful work out there. Most of the core problems of the system widely debated elsewhere are not acknowledged in Daschle's work. If he's not aware of those debates, he's not worth taking seriously. If he is aware, and I imagine he is to a degree, this book becomes a polemic and not really worth reading. Plagiarizing David Goldhill: "We will need to reduce, rather than expand, the role of insurance; focus the government's role exclusively on things that only government can do (protect the poor, cover us against true catastrophe, enforce safety standards, and ensure provider competition); overcome our addiction to Ponzi-scheme financing, hidden subsidies, manipulated prices, and undisclosed results; and rely more on ourselves, the consumers, as the ultimate guarantors of good service, reasonable prices, and sensible trade-offs between health-care spending and spending on all the other good things money can buy." Critical: What We Can Do about the Health-Care Crisis Senator Tom Daschle, this book's author, twice lost the chance of being the architect of a massive reformation of the United States' health care system. A tax problem kept him from being President Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services. Had he not lost his reelection bid in 2004, he would be leading the Senate effort for health care reform. Still, he and Senator Edward Kennedy laid the foundation upon which a reform could be built. This book describes that foundation as viewed by Daschle and will be influential in whatever health care reform comes from the Obama presidency. Admittedly, the reform proposals that Daschle would have crafted from a position in either the Administration or the Senate would likely have differed somewhat from those offered by the Congress in 2009. Understanding those differences is important as we evaluate whatever reform happens during the Obama years and the politicians responsible for either supporting or blocking those reforms. Concerns about America's health care system and efforts to reform it certainly are not new. Almost all of the Presidents since World War II have proposed changes. There have been minor successes and large failures. Daschle covers the history and gives his opinion as to what went wrong. He discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses found in the health care systems functioning in other industrial countries, as well as America's experience with Medicare, Veterans health care, and various approaches to health insurance. The book indicates the directions Daschle might have taken health care reform had he a formal position in government today. His book endorses a Federal Health Board structured somewhat like the Federal Reserve Board. It would be responsive to Congress and the President but would buffer them from setting guidelines and rules to curb costs and improve the quality delivered to consumers. Daschle ends his book on an optimistic note as to the likelihood of health care reform during the current administration. It is important to remember that Daschle is an unofficial advisor to the Obama administration and that he still has substantial influence with members of Congress. I write this review at a time when considerable rancor is swirling around the health care debate. Even so, I remain optimistic that there will be reform legislation passed and signed before the end of 2009 or very early in 2010. In a recent speech, the President said that there was general agreement as to at least eighty percent of the needed reform. Undoubtedly, most of that eighty percent is included in the concepts Daschle has set forth in his book.
Our Health Care book picks:
First Aid for Dogs: What to do When Emergencies Happen Journey Across the Life Span: Human Development and Health Promotion Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Success: A Course Review Applying Critical Thinking to Test Taking (Davis's Success) Study Guide to Accompany Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health

Disclaimer:
This site does not treat, diagnose or assess medical conditions. We do not prescribe medication or provide medical advice. The opinions, information and resources contained within this site are for informational purposes only. This information is not medical practice nor medical advice. Before starting any type of medical progam, exercise program, change in lifestyle, or diet, consult your physician to determine the options best suited to your individual needs.