Some off the wall ideas.

Besides death the other 800 pound gorilla in your hospital room is money. The all powerful dollar rules so much of this debate, from how does the government fund this, why bills are so high, how much can a patient win in a malpractice suit, and how well should doctors be compensated. I cannot pretend to understand all of the dollars and cents of this problem, but I can throw around some random ideas. First of all I believe doctors earn what is available to them in their market and should be allowed to take whatever money comes their way. However, I believe just as autoworkers and other factory industries priced themselves out of the market, doctors are reaching their ceiling. I understand testing, equipment, and other things in the field cost money, but a controllable dimension are the salaries of physicians. I understand their malpractice insurance costs are insane and the time and money it takes to become a doctor cannot be underscored, but I believe we can fix that too. The first thing to address is the idea that a doctor can be sued, I understand they make a mistake its life and death, but they are human, and paying someone rediculous amounts of money does not ease the pain. You can come up with many a case for negligence leading to death or misdiagnosis, but their must be a review by medical doctor to decide if compensation is necessary. The second thing is the med school is incredibly expensive, why not have government paid med school for those who qualify, these are essential jobs, and we should support these people at every level. Then I believe you could set a reasonable salary for doctors, and they would be able to get by just fine. These are rapidly constructed thoughts, but I hope this could be a viable alternative.

Tough Calls

The health care debate grows more interesting to me every time I think about it, read about it, and now blog about it. There are many tough calls when confronting health questions because it affects everything and everyone in your life. How would you handle the end of the life of your grandparents, parents, siblings, husband, wife, and yourself. Death is the number one fear of all people, which is amazing to think about, considering we all face it. How can the only absolutely guaranteed about life scare us so much. To me the biggest reason is we don't talk about it at all or nearly enough, people get mad when you spoil a movie they haven't seen, because they didn't know how it ends. We know how this life ends, for all of us we cannot escape it, this health care debate has everyone trying not to say death, with the new buzz phrase "end of life care." I think this is an opportunity to think about your mortality, no one lives forever, think long and hard how you would like to go.
Another interesting article http://www.newsweek.com/id/215291/page/3

Start Here

http://www.newsweek.com/id/212131
This is a newsweek article that I read a few weeks ago, and it discusses many of the current myths and rumors surrounding the health care debate. Whether you are for or against reform is your own personal decision, but before you buy into the hot catch phrase of the day and believe everything emailed or yelled about. Start with this article and get an idea of what the truth behind the rumors. This is a hot button issue right now and with nearly 50 million people without health coverage something must be done. You cannot drive down the street without car insurance, why should you be able to walk down the street without health insurance.