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Forum Post: bottom line

Posted 6 years ago on March 22, 2017, 10:31 a.m. EST by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX
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Summary

But these days, the actual leaders of health care organizations have become accustomed to the pay and perks of top executives of big commercial firms. We have documented again and again the ever rising and increasingly monumental pay of health care CEOs, even of ostensibly non-profit organizations, seemingly out of proportion to their organizations’ abilities to help patients’ and the public’s health.

This has gone on in an era of ascendant neoliberalism. Krimsky summarized the tenets of neoliberalism in his review of Science-Mart by Phillip Mirowski.

The term neoliberal, which arises from the work of post–World War II economists such as Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and others belonging to the ‘Chicago school’ of economics and law, has little in common with what is usually thought of as liberalism. The important tenets of neoliberalism, Mirowski says, include such propositions as the following: ‘The Market’ is a better processor of information than the state; ‘politics operates as if it were a market’; ‘corporations can do no wrong‘; ‘competition always prevails’; the state should be ‘degovernmentalized’ through ‘privatization of education, health, science and even portions of the military’; a good way to initiate privatization is to redefine property rights; ‘the nation-state should be subject to discipline and limitation through international initiatives’; ‘the Market . . . can always provide solutions to problems seemingly caused by markets in the first place’; ‘there is no such thing as a ‘public good’’; ‘freedom’ means economic freedom within the Market.

The logic appears to be that leaders of organizations that can do no wrong should be entitled to market levels of compensation, however high they may be, and without concern of whether the market is perfect (because all markets are by definition, perfect). Also, the logic appears to be that corporations that can do no wrong should be immune from questions about actions that appear to not put patients first.

All the distractions in Washington, DC should not put us off how the commercialization of health care in an era of neoliberalism (and managerialism) has led to ever worsening dysfunction, and ever increasing advantages to the insiders within the system.

But where will patients end up in such an era?

We need true health care reform that would enable leadership that understands the health care context, upholds health care professionals’ values, and puts patients’ and the public’s health ahead of extraneous, particularly short-term financial concerns. We need health care governance that holds health care leaders accountable, and ensures their transparency, integrity and honesty. What we will get is endless resistance to such reform from those who personally profit from the current dysfunctional, and increasingly corrupt system. And the current chaos and dysfunction in government at large is making it easier for those who personally profit to profit even more.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/03/benefits-mayo-clinic-explicitly-putting-commercially-insured-patients-ahead-government-insured-patients.html

If we're to survive, we can't depend on the market to provide the stuff of life. It needs to be done of, by and for the people on a non profit basis.

6 Comments

6 Comments


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[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 6 years ago

Solving problems require motivations. The crux of the matter of the medical insurance problem is NOT only about who wins and loses as an indiviual. We are one people. We take care of each other. Well, at least I remember a time when we still took care of each other.

A country is: 國家 - coming first, the state has four borders, one in each compass direction; coming second, the family has a roof over the pig. We definitely have the piggie - the U.S. on a per capita basis is nearly the wealthiest country in history. There are other countries wealthier on the same basis but none is as populous and gargantuan as the U.S. It's certainly fat enough so let's put a roof over it because we can afford it. Otherwise, we'll have no family and end up like the Retard-I-Can't hog which just whines and squeals for the tax cuts for the 》reich《 people.

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 6 years ago

yep, the answer's simple all right. all we have to do is reanimate the brain dead minds of 60% of the population. until then the most brilliant solutions will remain occluded ... in the darkness cast by demagogues like Trump.

or, we can just queer our own pitch by spinning off topic. never really focus and nothing will ever get done.

[-] 1 points by grapes (5232) 6 years ago

Just expand Medicare to cover everyone through single-payer universal medical care provided through both public and private providers. The whole thing can be solved very cheaply by piggybacking on existing Medicare's paying mechanism. Basic medical care is needed by the younger people, too.

Our current medical insurance system is just sweeping the dirt around and around and not taking it out with a dustpan. Only the U.S. can spend so much money on something and get so little back. The age of the sinkable aircraft carriers has arrived. Are the new ones going to be named as "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz"? We probably need more minesweepers first.

What have we got from spending trillions of dollars? The oil companies got to work in Kurdistan making MOAR profits and we got to defend Erbil(it somehow reminds me of Mobil! Oil!) in the name of rescuing the Yazidis from ISIL. Where are the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram whom Michelle tweeted of? Oh yes, they are dark!

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 6 years ago

yep

[-] 1 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 6 years ago

We shall find a way to get there from here.

[-] 1 points by DKAtoday (33802) from Coon Rapids, MN 6 years ago

You might find this group interesting/helpful to the cause of reforming health care. http://www.psr.org/