Invest in Your Health

Investing in Health Care Reform ( The New England Journal of Medicine, February 18, 2009 )

SUMMARY: A perspective article that suggests policies that could work for fulfilling the hopes that people have had for American health system. With a creation of national health insurance, both private and public plans, creating a different type of health care “market.” The intention of some what bundling the health care would create a competition along with lowering the spending that so many Americans are worried about.

TOPIC: Should the government arrange for hospitals to network to help standardize the cost of health care?

CATEGORY: Academic

PUBLICATION INFORMATION: The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most popular and widely-read peer reviewed medical journal. Published by the Massachusetts Medical Society, the oldest operating medical society in the U.S.

AUTHOR: Karen Davis PhD. President of the Commonwealth Fund; an economist with a past in research and public policy, she also served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services from 1977–1980, and was the first woman to head a U.S. Public Health Service agency.

LOCATION: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMp0900309

ACCESSED: February 25, 2009

SUPPORT:  President Barack Obama; The Commonwealth Fund‘s path proposal The Path to a High Performance U.S. Health System;

AUDIENCE & AGENDA: The New England Journal of Medicine is a peer-reviewed journal aimed at doctors and their patients. The online research articles are viewable for all.

USEFULNESS: This article is a view of what would happen not just to the health care industry, but also economically, with the GDP, if the government was to make a plan for a change in health care. The creation of a different type of market would lower premium cost and increase GDP. The thought is to bundle up health care to drop the premium rates and Medicaid spending in an eleven-year period.

WORK CITED: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMp0900309, http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Literature-Abstracts/2009/Feb/Investing-in-Health-Care-Reform.aspx, http://www.cmwf.org/, http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Bios/D/Davis-Karen.aspx, http://www.massmed.org/Content/NavigationMenu/About/MissionGoals/MMS_Mission_and_Stra.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Journal_of_Medicine, http://www.nejm.org/features/features.html, http://content.nejm.org/,