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Millions of Americans went to the polls on Tuesday, feeling anxious about the economy and health care reform, and yielding election results that gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives and weakened the Democratic majority in the Senate. Republicans picked up at least 60 House seats and at least six Senate seats in the election, removing Democrat Nancy Pelosi from her powerful position as speaker of the House and putting Republicans in charge of House leadership and committees.

The Republican sweep extended from coast to coast and removed more than 30 Democratic incumbents from the House of Representatives, including Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt and Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar.

Exit polling shows more than eight in 10 voters feel the economy is the No. 1 issue facing the nation, and three times as many people believe it is getting worse rather than better. Health care reform followed as the second-most important issue for voters during this election cycle. Nearly three in four voters expressed dissatisfaction with Congress and six in 10 say they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

With the midterm elections close to complete, we encourage you and others to see how health care reform affected congressional races by visiting the updated Health Action Network.

Health Care Reform
How the Election Results Affect the Future of Health Care Reform: With the new Republican majority in the House, a stronger showing in the Senate and greater numbers of GOP governors, the health care debate is expected to focus on implementation of the law, as well as efforts to repeal it. While full repeal will face a presidential veto, lawmakers will most likely pursue incremental changes, “tinkering and tweaking” the law to keep the debate top of mind for voters leading up to the 2012 elections.

According to political strategists, Republicans could also use the oversight authority of Congress to slow down or block regulations, essentially stalling the law’s progress. Congressional hearings are likely to focus on the impact of the immediate reforms on costs and coverage, the outlook for reforms that take effect in 2014 and stronger direct oversight of federal regulators. Additionally, the annual appropriations process is likely to serve as a battleground for health care reform issues, with a focus on funding for federal agencies involved in the implementation process.

Two More States Vote to Reject Health Insurance Mandate: At the polls this week, voters in Oklahoma and Arizona resoundingly supported ballot initiatives to opt out of the federal health care reform law. Missouri voters approved a similar measure, Proposition C, with 71% support on a primary ballot in August. A similar proposal on Tuesday’s ballot in Colorado would have prohibited the state from forcing residents to buy public or private health insurance. However, the measure was rejected by a narrow margin.

Public Opinion
Exit Polls Show Half of Americans Still Want Repeal: According to the Pew Research Center, voters were divided over whether to repeal health care reform (48%) or maintain or even expand it (47%) in exit polls on Tuesday. However, the major priorities for 2011 include reducing the deficit, creating jobs and boosting the economy.

Looking Ahead
President Barack Obama has invited the Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress to the White House on November 18 to discuss the new political landscape and ways to work together in the future. The meeting with Rep. John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader. Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to take place during the first week of Congress’ “lame-duck session,” which begins on November 15.

By Johnny Blogger – as consultant with the Chicago Lakeview Psychotherapy group, 2nd Story Counseling.

The topic of healthcare policy for mental health, psychotherapy, disease prevention, general medicine, including access to and administration of, is an extremely complex and at times politically contentious issue in the United States of America. This is in large part due to the many stakeholders who are part of the healthcare continuum. This brief paper will explore the various roles of these stakeholders and relate them to the entire field of public health policy. A reflective conclusion will be offered as a summary.

Stakeholders Identified

In the larger view, every single person in the United States of America can be viewed upon as a stakeholder in healthcare policy making. In a macro-view, there exists several subtypes that are important to discuss in order to more clearly identify the various players. What follows is a basic illustration of these stakeholders as identified by Teitbaum & Wilensky (2007) in their textbook, Essentials of Health Policy and Law.

Patient

The most important stakeholder in the healthcare policy making, in this writer’s opinion, is the patient. There are several factors that are of primary importance to patients regarding healthcare policy. These factors include:

Access
Affordability
Quality

Affordable access to healthcare remains a challenge for many in the U.S. according to a 2008 United States Census report with government programs cover approximately 27% (83 million) of the entire population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). This same report suggests that that approximately 50 million people in this country have no healthcare insurance at all. Patients (human beings) are big stakeholders in healthcare policy decisions.

Healthcare providers

Healthcare providers, which includes medical doctors. dentists, specialty practioners (i.e. mental psychologists, chiropractors) and other allied health professionals can all be considered major stakeholders in the healthcare policy formulation and decision making process. There currently exists huge, voluntary membership organizations which represent these various stakeholders. For example, the American Medical Association is “the voice” of physician providers in the United States.

Formulation of healthcare policy, which in many cases for providers is focused on payment, is important to this stakeholder group. Medicare, which is a U.S. government operated healthcare program, is often criticized for its low payment per procedure ratio by this group (Macgillis, 2009).

Government & Insurance Providers

The government, both state and federal, can be considered major stakeholders in healthcare policy making. As discussed earlier in this paper, some 83 million Americans receive some type of health coverage from governmental entities. An example of this can be found in Medicare, which is a joint health insurance program that is paid for by the Federal government and state governments. Primarily, Medicare covers people who are 65 years of age or older. According to Medicare.gov, the program currently covers over 40 million Americans (Medicare, 2010). It makes sense that the government would be a major stakeholder in healthcare policy decision making as the government is one of the larger players.

Insurance providers, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Aetna, Cigna and many others are also “major” stakeholders in healthcare policy and decision making. This writer would also like to point out that insurance providers are also very influencial in the healthcare policy and law decision making process. These corporations have billions of dollars to donate to political campains and efforts that are designed to help shape public health policy debate among the public and lawmakers.

Public

As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, everyone can be considered a stakeholder in healthcare policy decision making. Everyone means the general public. Much of the law regarding public health is conerned with health adminstration, wellness promotion and disease prevention. Collectively, it is the public that most major healthcare initiatives are aimed at. An example of this might be the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urging people to recieve their annual influenza immunmization shot. Laws and policies, in general terms. are designed to promote public health and prevent illness.

Reflective Conclusion

There are many stakeholders involved in public health policy formulation and decision making in the United States. These include patients, healthcare providers, the government and insurance providers and of course, the general public. It is noteworthy to point out that money has a major influence on shaping the debate of healthcare policy and law in the United States as witnessed in the recent healthcare reform that became law in 2010. There are of course other stakeholders that are on a smaller scale, such as medical equipment providers, healthcare advertisers and so forth. This paper focused on the major stakeholders in  healthcare policy decision making on the larger view.

In an interview today with Nebraska radio station KOGA, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson said he worked to make sure the new health care law wasn’t a government takeover of health care, addressed some of its benefits for Nebraskans and concerns that have been raised about the law. Below are excerpts from the interview. Easy To Insure ME has the answers

Asked about those who are calling for a repeal and replacement, Senator Nelson pointed out that many of the provisions already in effect are making the health insurance market fairer for Nebraskans:

“For those who want to repeal it, it’s going to be interesting to see if they want to repeal this: banning insurers from preventing coverage due to pre-existing conditions. That’s in place. Allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines. Allowing¨ kids to be on parent’s insurance¨ up until the age of 26. There are a lot of parents struggling right now. They paid for and borrowed a lot of money for a college education. They get out, they can’t find a job. They’d be kicked off the parent`s health insurance plan. And if they had a pre-existing condition, they wouldn’t qualify for individual insurance and if they didn’t have a job they wouldn’t qualify for group insurance. So they could be uninsured. That was taken care of. There were just a number of things that are already in place. Right now insurers cannot impose annual and lifetime caps on benefits. They can’t drop a person`s coverage just because they get sick. Those things are already in the -

The senator highlighted the fact that 220,000 Nebraskans – roughly the population of Lincoln – don’t have health insurance. By reducing that number, the new law aims to control costs that are currently passed on from those who don`t have health insurance to those who do:

“There are 220,000 Nebraskans who don’t currently have health insurance. The number of people who live in Lincoln don’t have health insurance in Nebraska. And we can’t take the approach of ‘hey, I have mine, now you get yours.` Many of them can`t qualify easily because of pre-existing conditions.

“When people don’t have health care coverage, they still get health care because they go to the emergency rooms and when they go to the emergency rooms they can’t pay. Guess who that cost is passed on to? Those of us that do have insurance and are able then to pay and our rates are higher.

“This law¨ is aimed at changing that to level the playing field. If we didn’t do something, premium costs due to health care costs are going to continue going up at double digit levels. They’re going to go up in the meantime until all the insurance reforms kick in. But that won’t be because of health insurance reform. It will be because health costs continue to skyrocket. This is all aimed at reducing the impact of that and the increasing cost of health care, which is the driving force for our costs of health insurance.”

Asked about concerns people have with the new law, Nelson said that he worked to ensure that it is not a government takeover of health care and noted that it relies on the existing private system. He drew attention to the fact that some fears people raised haven’t come to pass such as “death panels, ” that he read the entire bill before it was passed, his role in shaping the bill and said that he will be watching the implementation of the bill carefully to make sure it follows Congress’intent:

“But I think people were warned about some things that never occurred. For example, where are the death panels? There aren’t any death panels. We also heard that the law would require people who want public health insurance to be implanted with a microchip. That hasn’t happened and it’s not going to happen. And where’s the rationing we were warned about? But perhaps the scariest thing we heard was a government takeover of health care. Have we seen that? No we haven’t. But it’s controversial; I understand. I worked hard against the public option, which was going to replace the private system. I worked hard to make sure we didn’t get that public option, that we have retained the private system. There’s no public option, no national health insurance plan, no single payer system in the law. So those are the kinds of things that could have happened but didn’t happen because I and some others fought very hard against those things happening.”

Abby-Borbon Roaquin is a manager and clinician in Ulan Medical Spa in San Diego, California. Here she explains what can be HydraFacial HydraFacial Cell, a new breakthrough in aesthetic technology hydrate and moisturize the skin. It is completely different from all other skin resurfacing. HydraFacial eliminates dead cells and impurities in the bath of the new skin with cleansing, hydrating and moisturizing serums. You feel your skin calm, refreshed and will not be tempted to feel during treatment. In addition, you can see the effect immediately spüren.Eigentlich HydraFacial popular with celebrities everywhere. The June 2009 issue of InStyle magazine’s billed as the hottest celebrities Gesichts.Sprechen pre-wedding we are on some details of the advantage of HydraFacial.Was HydraFacial? First, is the foundation of healthy hydration and radiant skin. Our cells can not function optimally if they are not fully hydrated. This leads to tissue damage that we call aging. Their problems may use tissue products HydraFacial to promote the renewal of healthy cells, and a mixture of antioxidants to repair, anti-inflammatory and moisturizing ingredients. HydraFacial treatment, moisturizing and non-irritating, you know that your dark spots are easier to help get rid of wrinkles on your face, acne and other rashes clear, and also help get rid of the allergy-induced eye swollen or peeling. Your skin will be soft and pores klarer.Wer is a candidate for the HydraFacial? All skin types even sensitive skin can easily tolerate the treatment. Doctors in Ulan Medical Spa is well suited for sera mix your skin type and unique conditions. Processing takes Please consult your doctor or professional skin care and make assessment of sensitive skin or testen.Wie long is the treatment? HydraFacial is a fast, effective only 15-20 minutes. You will not feel uncomfortable during the procedure – it is often a feeling of movement as “cool slowly brush described on the face.” There is no downtime, so that after the make-up and return to your normal activities provide treatment. If your skin is sensitive, you can sign up for an hour or two later red. And we must avoid the sun for a few unique Tage.Etwas Ulan Medical Spa that microdermabrasion is done immediately before HydraFacial. Microdermabrasion scrub gently receive the outermost layer of dead skin and prepares the skin to the HydraFacial sera. This additional step improves the results from the results after taking HydraFacial.Welche HydraFacial treatments are expected and how long the results? Many patients who reflect the sophistication of seeing visible skin and even skin radiance after just one treatment. The results of smoothing moisturizer can last five minutes there seven days or more. A series of six treatments – once a week – recommended by the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, hyperpigmentation, improve, and oily / acne-prone skin. does not, you can keep your results start treatment HydraFacial every two minutes, four weeks ago after your first set of Behandlungen.Wenn you live in San Diego, please visit Ulan Medical Spa is for your information jetzt.de HydraFacial reassuring in the article to replace the medical expertise and advice of your doctor. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care from a health care provider appropriate.

Millions of Americans went to the polls on Tuesday, feeling anxious about the economy and health care reform, and yielding election results that gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives and weakened the Democratic majority in the Senate. Republicans picked up at least 60 House seats and at least six Senate seats in the election, removing Democrat Nancy Pelosi from her powerful position as speaker of the House and putting Republicans in charge of House leadership and committees. Read the rest of this entry »

China Healthcare Continues Robust Growth

The Chinese healthcare industry has shown outstanding growth over the last few years. Ever since the reform process, the investment activities in Chinese healthcare sector have grown at a healthy growth rate and this has helped the sector posting better results than expected. As per our research on the sector titled “China Healthcare Sector Analysis”, healthcare spending in China is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 18% during 2010-2012.

In present industry scenario, most of the healthcare services in China are presently provided by the government and expansion of these services after reform has created huge demand of drugs, medical devices and equipments in the country. Moreover, the demand in other associated segments like health insurance and healthcare IT services has also increased robustly. In this regard, the report provides a complete analysis of the impact of healthcare reform on the Chinese healthcare market. We expect that the demand in emerging segments like OTC drugs and biopharmaceuticals will also post healthy growth rates.

The report studies the Chinese healthcare market by diving it into three major segments i.e. pharmaceuticals, medical devices and health services. Out of these three segments medical device market is expected to outperform the other segments. Our research gives a complete and statistical overview on all the three segments. Besides this, the report thoroughly studies the competitive landscape of the industry and provides valuable information to clients.

“China Healthcare Sector Analysis” is an outcome of extensive research and prudent analysis of the concerned sector done by our industry experts. The report is also supplemented with forecasts on the respective industries and also gives a complete demand and supply analysis of the Chinese healthcare services market. It covers various industry bottlenecks that are restraining the growth of the industry. Thus, it presents a true and unbiased picture of the Chinese healthcare industry, which will prove to be useful to the clients while making investments and joint ventures in the market.

Top Countries For Health Care

While many Americans believe we are in one of the top countries for health care, the truth is we are not. While the United States’ healthcare is the second-most costly in the entire world, we rank a distant 37th in quality! While it may not shock you to learn that America is not the top country where health care is concerned, the fact that we are not even in the top 10 should certainly give you reason for pause.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), France leads the world in quality health care. France is followed by Italy, Spain, and Oman, with Austria and Japan rounding-out the top 10. It must be noted that these “rankings” by the World Health Organization are actually some 10 years old now; this study was done in 2000, based on information compiled in 1997-1999. The World Health Organization no longer produces such studies due to the work involved, though it releases a new world health report every year.

Just to put things in perspective, the data, which the World Health Organization used to compile this ranking order, was most likely formatted on computers running Windows 98 – maybe even Windows 95! MP3 players were still relatively new and the entertainment industries were in an uproar over an upstart site called Napster. Bill Clinton was still in office as President. In many ways, 1998-2000 seems longer than 10 years ago.

In the last nine years, technology has advanced greatly, both in and outside of the medical field. As we all know, the United States is unquestionably a leader in technology. However, it does not necessarily follow that, because we are a world leader in technology, we are also a leader in health care – just as it does not follow that because we spend more on health care than almost any other country, we are a leader in the quality of that care. These statistics can be confusing, as the amount of money spent also reflects the fact that medical care in the United States is the most expensive in the world. Still, WHO found that access to healthcare in the United States has actually declined in the intervening years, meaning that, if anything, our ranking has probably slipped!

But it isn’t all doom and gloom: worldwide, health care has improved and improved the lives of millions. Fewer children (ages five and under) are dying, and Malaria rates have gone down. More people today have access to clean drinking water, which helps cut-down on disease and parasitic infestation, as well. All told, the worldwide health care outlook is very good, and much of this has to do with technological advancements made in the last decade.

The top five countries for health care are (in order) France, Italy, San Marino, Andorra, and Malta. The United States is a distant 37th, despite the fact that it spends more than any other country (save one) on health care. While technological advancements have continued at a staggering rate and improved health care globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) found that access to medical care has actually declined in America since this report was made! Like all statistics, the results can be misleading without further information, and the information presented in this article is actually some 10 years old now, however it is the only information available to us, as WHO quit ranking countries for their health care due to the amount of resources it requires.

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Marketing a Healthcare Facility

In the healthcare industry brands are chosen by patients on trust. People rich, poor, educated or even illiterates consult their friends, colleagues and family members before choosing a particular doctor.

Referral marketing plays a very important role in establishing the credibility of any healthcare set up – the only question being that how we promote or rather brand the healthcare facility and what is the extent of the geographic areas which we can consider as the catchment areas for generating new business.

There is no rational spreadsheet or framework available. That being so, it all boils down to trust. In healthcare the TRUST word rules. Word of mouth is the most important tool.

Branding the healthcare facility – a brand is an emotional relationship ( an intangible) which creates or gives an impression to the customer which makes it choose one healthcare facility over the other – there are myriad factors which go into branding a healthcare facility, from whether it is a multi specialty facility or whether it is a specialized treatment centre.

For a multi specialty centre, it would be advisable to compare the healthcare set up with the other similar existing healthcare setups and chalk out a plan to project the perceived shortcomings (in other setups) as our strengths – however caution needs to be exercised in projecting strengths, which should be something for which a consumer sees a perceived value and which would attract him to your facility. Besides the standard of healthcare practitioners and quality of healthcare services and infrastructure, it comes down to the level of services – you can project the minimum wait time, friendliness of auxiliary staff, reporting time etc which build a cumulative experience for a client.

A specialized treatment centre, which is a pioneer in its field, has to speak from the mantle of a leader – all the communication and branding has to deliver the same message and evoke trust and confidence in the minds of the patients.

Catchment Areas – for a healthcare set up to determine the extent of geographic area it needs to advertise in, the following points have to be taken into consideration:

The patient population has to be compared with the hospital’s catchment-area population in terms of demographics and other characteristics

The size of the set up – how many clients can it serve effectively

Presence of other players offering similar procedures

What do we perceive the market size of the procedure and not to mention the consideration of the geographic distance which the patient would be willing to travel for the treatment.

How Health Insurance Exchange Fit into Health Care Reform

Some people see the implementation of health insurance exchanges as being a key component in health care reform. The reason for this is that health insurance exchanges give consumers options.

For example, if you receive your health care benefits through your employer, you basically only have two options. You either enroll in the plan chosen for you, or you do not enroll in that plan. There are not a lot of other options available to you. If you decide to not enroll in your employer-sponsored group health plan, then you have to navigate the private insurance market. This can be a complicated process. Also, in this market, the health insurance carriers have all of the power, and will deny or approve your application based on your health.

In the future, health insurance exchange will do a lot to alleviate some of those problems. Health insurance carriers will be prohibited from basing premiums or approval on pre-existing medical conditions. New health insurance policies in the future will have a standard required comprehensive set of benefits. More importantly, all of these plans, policies, and companies will list their information on health insurance exchanges.

Consumers will go to these health insurance exchanges and will be able to find a wide array of competing insurance companies, and their competing plans. Health insurance exchanges will provide easy access to compare benefit levels, included and excluded services, network restrictions, and premium costs. A consumer will not have to go to each different company’s web site, but will instead find all of the information available on health insurance exchanges. Of course, that is what insurance brokers do right now, but many people do not know they can use insurance brokers to provide all of this information, plus excellent customer service. Health insurance exchanges in the future will serve the same function as an insurance broker does now.

Because many people will use health insurance exchanges to find a health insurance policy, they may allow for quantity group discounts on their policies, which will mean more leverage and buying power for the consumer. When health insurance exchanges promote competition among companies, more consumer power, lower prices, higher quality, and better service is often a result. This in turn will result in more individuals purchasing health insurance plans through health insurance exchanges, and a productive cycle of customer service and better health care will take place.

At this time, health insurance exchange has not been fully formed and is not fully functioning. Some examples of health insurance exchanges have existed in Massachusetts and Utah, so many future health insurance exchanges will be based on their model, and that of New York’s health insurance exchange. Many people are looking forward to the positive health care reform results that health insurance exchanges should have. Health insurance exchanges will start out serving the self-employed and individuals, but eventually, they may offer competition for even employer-sponsored group health plans. The idea of health insurance exchanges, however, is that people who want better health care options will be able to find better health care plans.

The Forcast for Healthcare Management Jobs

As the U.S. population ages, healthcare management jobs are likely to increase greatly, both in number and in remuneration. This also includes careers in healthcare such as administration and allied health occupations in which business skills are more important than a medical degree.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), health care was the nation’s largest industry in 2004, providing 13.5 million jobs nationwide. About 411,000 of these health care workers were independent, self-employed professionals. 40% of the fastest growing occupations consist of careers in healthcare. Such healthcare management jobs include traditional fields such as nursing and physician’s assistant, but can also include medical secretaries and home and personal home health care aides.

Even if the U.S. finally joins the rest of the industrialized world by offering free, single-payer universal health care to all its citizens (by no means a foregone conclusion given the financial power of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries – but increasingly, a possibility with rising anger and frustration on the part of working Americans over a dysfunctional “for-profit” health care system), the job outlook should be unaffected. In fact, it is even likely to improve; contrary to corporate media propaganda, health care professionals in countries with socialized medicine enjoy a high standard of living and substantially greater job security as government employees than their U.S. counterparts.

Most healthcare management jobs are in hospitals (over 41%). Nursing homes and residential care facilities make up the second largest source of employment, with private medical and dental offices a close third.

In any event, the DOL now predict that most of the new wage and salaried jobs created over the next seven to ten years will be in healthcare management. Most of these workers have jobs requiring no more than an associate’s (two-year) degree; nonetheless, those with careers in healthcare are among the most educated in the nation.

Whatever shape health care takes in the U.S. during the coming decades, healthcare management jobs will be plentiful. If you are going to take advantage of the growing opportunities in careers in healthcare, you’ll want to make sure you are enrolled in, and receive a good quality health care management education.

Healthcare management education is offered at most major universities; there are also many schools that specialize in such courses of study. These train prospective students for careers in healthcare requiring no more than an associate’s degree, such as dental hygienist, or anesthetists, which require more advanced training but do not need a medical degree; health care marketing; and even physical education for young people. Some institutions offer healthcare management education online. Before starting on your healthcare management education, you’ll want to check out several of these institutions to find out which is the best for you.