"I Think Your Mom Probably Did": The Best of the Weekend

Every weekend, I share my three favorite videos or stories that helped enhance my own understanding of the health care debate. In Washington, the focus is almost entirely on the machinations of the Senate Finance Committee, the House’s preparations for a full floor debate, and the looming question of what package can or will survive in the Senate. But with such a focus on the politics, there’s not quite enough on the policy. Luckily, the first two articles helped me fill in the gaps.

1.) Kaiser Health News, “Canadian Doctor: Dutch Health Care System Could Work In U.S.”

Dr. Robert Ouellet, until recently the president of the Canadian Medical Association, was also recently on a fact-finding mission to several European countries to assist the Canadian government in finding ways to improve their own universal health care system. This interview really has it all – musings on where the American health care system needs to go, comparisons to the Netherlands and several other countries, and myth-busting about the much-maligned Canadian system.

As mentioned before, those looking to blacken the name of Canadian medicine need to spend more time talking to Canadian doctors.

Q: In the United States, we’ve heard a lot of negative things said about the Canadian health care system. How do you respond?

A: First, people are not dying on the streets in Canada. I think there is a lot of exaggeration in what we have seen in the ads in the United States about the Canadian system. We have a problem of access and we want to fix that, that's for sure. We're not denying patients care because they don't have money. We have good quality. Many doctors, I am one of them, went to the United States for training. So it's not fair to say our system is so bad. That's not true.

Q: Would the United States be well-advised to adopt some of the Canadian ways of doing health care?

A: I think so. The most important thing for us is to keep our system universal. If it is one value that you want to import, that's fine. But it doesn't mean you need to import all [of our system] because it won't work in the States. And it's the same for us. You have good things in your system. But we don't want to have your system here in Canada. This is why we went to some European countries, to look at something different. And the first value we were looking for is universal access.

Read the whole interview at Kaiser Health News.

2.) The New York Times, “Medicare Scare-Mongering”

If we’re having a health care debate, then it must be time for someone somewhere to be darkly warning that Medicare is about to face massive debilitating cuts! If I was a senior citizen, I'd be ticked that my presumed gullibility had become such a political target.  As this New York Times editorial illustrates, the reality is that a major goal of health care reform is to strengthen the Medicare program to increase its solvency and quality.

What the Republicans aren’t saying -- and what the Democrats clearly aren’t saying enough -- is that in important ways, coverage for a vast majority of Medicare recipients, those in traditional Medicare, should actually improve under health care reform.

The House legislation, the only bills in near-final form, would reduce and ultimately eliminate a gap -- the so-called doughnut hole -- in Medicare drug coverage that currently forces more than three million beneficiaries to pay for drugs entirely out of their own pockets once they hit specified spending levels. That would also benefit many other beneficiaries who pay high premiums for coverage in the gap that they never end up using.

The House bills would also waive deductibles and co-insurance for preventive care that can head off serious illness, expand eligibility for programs that assist low-income beneficiaries and provide incentives for doctors and hospitals to coordinate care, improve quality, and lower costs. All that should benefit many if not most Medicare beneficiaries. And delivery system reforms should benefit the private plans as well.

Read the full editorial at New York Times.com

3.) Stabenow Replies To Kyl: You Don't Need Maternity Benefits, 'But Your Mother Did'

My favorite video from the Senate Finance Committee mark-up (with a big h/t to Igor Volsky over at Think Progress). Once again, a conservative member of Congress is making the case that legislatures should not create minimum standards for coverage (a la, a mandate). I don’t buy that argument, but if you’re going to make it, I’d avoid citing a class of medical care that half of the population had an excellent chance of needing at some point in their lives.

Plus, it’s basically a video of a United States Senator making a “Your Mama” joke. What’s not to love?