the government has a plan?

Everyone in the US has heard something about health care reform. People heard about it in the months leading up to the presidential election in November 2008, and people have been hearing about it all summer as attempts at reform get twisted into things that barely resemble the initial plan. Last fall I wrote quite a long paper and participated in a debate about Obama's proposed health care plan. I will only focus on the technology aspect of it here. Essentially the common theme among business, education, and government is the recognition of the need for digital health records. The site tells of the nation's progress and lists all of these vague goals in the realm of health care. I am bias on this issue and believe that all American citizens should be given health insurance, but I can still criticize the government's plan.

Eventually there could possibly be a cap on health care spending. There could be a rationing of which technologies are used to treat which patients. How can the government create a policy listing which patients are the priority and which are secondary? Creating clear cut boundaries is difficult in medicine. There are always exceptions to the rule. Not giving a healthy person with a history of cancer routine scans could make it too late before doctors find the tumor. Not giving an athlete an MRI could make them play with an injury and destory their entire knee. Ethical decisions are difficult to make and broad policies can leave people behind.


http://abhisays.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/obama_healthcare.jpg

http://www.healthreform.gov/