Affordable Care Act.......The Missing Link....It is not Australopithecus

Houston, we  have a problem  "Failure to Launch"

Despite a goal of access to health care for all, however the hinge on the door for acccess is squeaking. News such as this are appearing in medical news.

Family Planning Clinics In Calif. Squeezed By Health Law KQED - February 10, 2014 Millions Trapped in Health-Law Coverage Gap Wall Street Journal - February 9, 2014 They quit their jobs, thanks to health-care law Washington Post - February 9, 2014 Enrolling in Covered California is not for the weak of heart, or spirit.  For those who were previously uninsured for a variety of reasons the affordable care act raise spirits with the elimination of the fear of not being able to pay for health care. The current system was not sustainable financially, however health care is available taking away the financial morass of insurance companies, bureaucracy and government.  Neither government, nor insurance companies provide health care. Physiciains, nurses, hospitals and many other providers care for patients. A consequence of the change will be the marked reduction in 'free care'. The old model of those fortunate enough to pay for their own care, and providers and hospitals having deep pockets to finance care for the less priveleged of our society. In order to assure health care and security for all the down side is forfeiting freedom. The tyranny of absolute security is freedom. Some of  us understand the concept and the reason for opposition to the affordable care act.  Others see it as an opportunity   for free health care.   Those whol will receive this generosity are often not only uninsured, but also un-empowered, and have little impact, are passive and do not have resources, nor influence to make changes. The U.S. Constitution (    )  guarrantees the pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  That statement places us in a conundrum.  Does that mean care to avoid illness, or treatment to keep one alive? This is not some ephemeral abstract thought embodied in our founding document. Other constitutional guarrantees in the past have been manipulated to make change The Affordable Care Act in Californa is known as  'Covered California'.  Patients who sign up are screened for eligibilty based on income and household size. Those who's income is greater than........are required to purchase a subsidized health insurance policy or face a fine.  Some of these policies look nice, offered by stable companies, such as Blue Shield, Healthnet, Anthem and their providers are listed under providers for Covered California.  However with a more in depth search you will find they did not receive contracts and are not providers.  (small details).....this will reduce access to providers (and some hospitals). None of this has been adequatly explained  Some who look forward to using Covered California should call their chosen provider and ask if they are a provider for Covered California.   Many of them are not, and some may not even know if they are signed up for it.

Health Benefit Exchange

Has health care improved since the ACO went into effect??  We have been told that already the ACA has saved millions and perhaps billions of dollars. How is that so?  Where are the details?

I have an open mind and I am willing to consider the facts....so just show me the numbers. How is it that the government has infused billions of dollars into health IT and providers must now support it operationally ? Given the lifetime of IT hardware and software obsolescence in five years at the most it will all have to be upgraded and/or replaced with a second generation of sofware that has real meaningful usability, not the garbage that HHS is insisting we use to accomodate the "quants" at HHS who massage the information spewing out of their machines.

Health care now supports an industry of high tech that has nothing to do with patient care. Vendors of hardware, software, consultants, IT consultants, a stream of auditors, review firms, outcome studies. What idiots think we are saving money?  The money in health care no longer is going to patient care......it is going to many parasitic organizations.  The only good thing about it is that unemployment would be much worse than it is already.

How long will  health benefit exchanges  be useful after the initial period of signing up the uninsured. Surely it will cost a great deal to fix it, and maintain it.

If the affordable care act continues to roll out the next five years will be a financial and health disaster.

For all the details on Health Benefit Exchanges and which insurance companies have signed up here is the list. It does not mean your doctor will accept these plans since the reimbursement rates in the Affordable Care Act will be very low compared to the current rates.

Stay tuned.

Steve Case cautions digital health entrepreneurs not to build “printer drivers” | mobihealthnews

mHealth during 2012-2013 did expand exponentially as predicted by many HIT experts...Steve Case and Esther Dyson give up their recommendations regarding mobile apps and the unique characteristics which require a comparison with the growth and acceptance of other services, such as AOL.

Citing his experience at AOL, Co-Founder Steve Case told attendees at the mHealth Summit this week that entrepreneurs in new markets typically will experience three phases as a newer field like digital health matures: hype, hope, and happiness.

Hype, of course, is one of the first phases when most everyone is excited about the potential, but “revolutions happen in an evolutionary” way, Case said, they don’t happen overnight. The hope phase is when expectations crash for one reason or another and only the most passionate and committed entrepreneurs decide to stick it out. Case said at that time the passionate ones even “double down”. The happiness phase is later when things are going well and the market is relatively established.
For AOL and the rise of the internet, Case said it took 20 years for it to become established and mainstream. Even by the end of first decade, Case said it appeared that the skeptics were right — only about 3 percent of the general population was online and for only about one hour each day on average. It took that much time to get the infrastructure in place, however, and during the second decade adoption ramped up as services flourished.  Case said that by his count digital health is already about one decade in.

Widely lauded angel investor Esther Dyson joined Case on-stage at the event to help put the digital health market’s progress in perspective. She said that the entrepreneurs in this market are not “healthcare transformers” but “creators” rooting at the edges of healthcare with something new. Mobile phones didn’t compete with landlines at first, Dyson reminded the audience. What they are creating will be called “health”, she said, not healthcare.
Dyson also noted that digital health entrepreneurs are fairly different from the early PC and dotcom entrepreneurs from previous decades.
“[In digital health] it’s not just enough to change behavior, but also did it change outcomes?” Dyson asked. One of the companies in her portfolio, Voxiva, has a smoking cessation tool that “doubles the rate of quitting,” she said. That’s good, “but that’s something like 10 percent instead of 5 percent. That’s pathetic. [Digital health] still has a long way to go.”

Steve Case cautions digital health entrepreneurs not to build “printer drivers” | mobihealthnews