The Health Care Reform Reference Post

Health care and the Affordable Care Act are very complicated subjects with many moving parts.  My goal is to bring simplicity and understanding of the health care system and the law to everyday people.  With understanding the system and the problems, we can work together toward solutions.

Blogs make this challenging, as short posts are required that people digest very quickly.  In breaking down the law, the overall picture can be lost in the weeds of each blog post. In addition, we have more people joining the conversation in bits and pieces.

To help the situation, I’ve created this post as a reference page for all my other posts.  As I discuss topics, I will update and provide links in this article under the appropriate headings as listed below.

Clarity in our desired outcome is important to come up with workable solutions.  As a country, we have not answered some very important questions.  This set of articles deals with the big picture questions we need to answer to improve our health care system.  Here are the questions, along with the links:

Should everyone have access to BASIC health care?

How much should taxpayers pay for health care?

What health care should we provide with taxpayers’ money?

Over time, I will discuss each part of our health care system, and how the components are handled in the Affordable Care Act.  There is no particular order for these topics, other than first covering topics of high importance and areas that have not received a lot of attention in the press.  I will also take requests from readers as to what they want to read next.  Remember, if it isn’t linked, I haven’t written about it yet, and I’ll get to it.  Here are the topics:

Obamacare in General

Billing

Critical care

Preventive care

Medical care homes

Provider payment

Electronic health records

Patient choice

Insurance issues

Health care spending

Taxes and the ACA

Finally, I will occasionally deviate to other issues, still related to money and medicine, and in the overall scheme of things, also related to health care reform.  And a list of those…

End of life issues

Chronic illness issues

Please feel free to suggest topics, as I most certainly left many out.  This is a work in progress.

People want to fix the system, and we have a problem with “learned helplessness” – when we feel we have no control, we basically give up.  I am concerned this is happening both in health care and politics in our country.  Fortunately, there is a way out of learned helplessness.  Shawn Achor, author of “The Happiness Advantage,” calls it “finding the third way.”

My big audacious goal is for us to find the third way in repairing our health care system.  It will take education, good communication, and all of us working from a place of respect and desire to solve these problems.  Please share this post with others and continue to share your ideas and feedback.  If enough people come together, elected officials will be compelled to implement effective solutions.  It can be done.

Stay tuned, and I look forward to comments on this blog so the conversation is shared with others.  You can also reach me on Twitter @CarolynMcC or at carolyn.mcclanahan@gmail.com.

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TELUS Health Solutions launches new Canadian health reference portal, myhealthreference.com

88 per cent of Canadians are looking for online health information with Canadian references, yet 72 per cent concerned about reliability*

MONTREAL , Jan. 19, 2012 /CNW/ - TELUS is making access to reliable, verified Canadian healthcare information online a snap with myhealthreference.com. myhealthreference.com, a new health reference internet portal, is designed to help Canadians find the relevant information and tools they need to take better care of their health and the health of their loved ones.

A recent national poll by Vision Critical found 72 per cent of Canadians are concerned with the reliability of healthcare information they find online, yet 53 per cent still use the Internet as their primary health information reference.

"Technology has empowered us with convenient, fast access to health information. Yet much of the online information is unverified. myhealthreference.com will allow Canadians to quickly find credible, reliable and expert-reviewed health information for themselves and their families," said Paul Lepage , senior vice-president, TELUS Health Solutions.

With 66 per cent of Canadians seeking a single point for online health information, the new site will deliver current content, reviewed articles and specialized functions to make the consumer experience "future friendly".

The new site includes access to:

Web and mobile tools such as a symptom checker, self-assessment modules, healthy habits guides and smoking cessation programs Powerful search feature that "learns" from user trends and health news to deliver relevant, credible content to returning visitors Reliable reference content and news from trusted Canadian sources covering health topics from A to Z Advice from physicians, pharmacists, naturopaths and nutritionists, as well as information to find specialized local resources

The Vision Critical survey also reveals:

90 per cent of women identified themselves as the primary health seekers in the family 70 per cent of mothers first look to the Internet to gather health advice for their children 94 per cent of mothers prefer a website with information from a Canadian reference 66 per cent of Canadians have used online health information for positive results 25 per cent of Quebecers do not have a family physician. The highest rate from all provinces surveyed (17% BC, 14% AB, 8% MB/SK, 10% ON, 13% ATL) 33 per cent of Canadians over 55 say it's difficult to find dietary tips for specific chronic health conditions

To explore the new site go to www.myhealthreference.com.

*The Vision Critical poll of 1,500 Canadians was conducted from December 19 to December 22, 2011 .

About TELUS Health Solutions
TELUS Health Solutions is a leader in telehealth, electronic health records, remote patient monitoring, mobile home and community care, consumer health, benefits management and pharmacy management. Our solutions give health authorities, providers, primary care physicians, patients and consumers the power to enhance decision making and improve outcomes for Canadians. TELUS Health Solutions is transforming how information is used across the continuum of care from hospital to home with solutions that foster collaboration, drive prevention and empower care teams and patients. TELUS Health Solutions is Canada's leading Healthcare IT Company as cited by the Branham Group for five years and for being honoured as the ITAC Health Company of the Year (2008) and Health Transformation Company of the Year (2009). For more information about TELUS Health Solutions, please visit www.telushealth.com and www.telushealthspace.com.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada , with $10.3 billion of annual revenue and 12.6 million customer connections including 7.2 million wireless subscribers, 3.6 million wireline network access lines, 1.3 million Internet subscribers and more than 450,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle , TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed $245 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Eleven TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

Survey Methodology
From December 19 to December 22, 2011 , Vision Critical conducted an online survey among a randomly selected, representative sample of 1,500 Canadians who are Vision Critical Forum panel members. Individuals were sampled according to Census data to be representative of the Canadian national adult population. The full dataset has been statistically weighted according to the most current gender, age, region (and in Quebec , language) Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada . The margin of error is ±2.7 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

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