Healthcare and tnbc

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   Healthcare is an issue that affects us all, particularly with our
shared diagnoses.  Pam, you are so right that the subject belongs in
this forum.  

For those of you who might be concerned that the USA will have
single-payer or some other foreign (and, dare I say,
socialist-scented) new construct imposed upon us, perhaps endangering
the huge profits currently enjoyed by the insurance companies (and
particularly the top-hat administrators thereof), I have words of
comfort for you.  

I edit an integrative-medicine journal and I can paraphrase for you an
article that is currently in production.  Integrative-medicine doctors
held a summit on integrative medicine and public health last February
in Washington, DC, hopeful that a more patient- and prevention-centered
system of healthcare in the USA might be ushered in by the new
administration.  

Unbeknownst to them, while their conference was being planned and
implemented as integrative medicine's voice for healthcare reform,
clandestine meetings were taking place elsewhere in the capitol city,
and these gatherings had a different focus.  Late in March these interests
published a 5-page summation of their findings (http://www.alpha.org/NR/dronlyres/619B709C-7982-4BDA-9236-D305A5656FB5/0/HRDCommonGroundFINALEMBARGOED.pdf). 

More than the content, the composition of the group who created it is
indicative of how this year's healthcare legislation will fall.  Here is the list in full:  AARP, Advanced Medical Technology Association,
America’s Health Insurance Plans, American Cancer Society Cancer Action
Network, American College of Physicians, American Hospital Association,
American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, American Public
Health Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Business
Roundtable, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Families USA,
Federation of American Hospitals, Healthcare Leadership Council, National
Federation of Independent Business, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers
of America, and the US Chamber of Commerce.

Insurance companies, entrenched interests, and medical alliances are well and fully represented while
integrative-care proponents were not invited to the party.  Will they prevail?  Well, I haven't heard any talk of single-payer healthcare from the Obama administration.  So, to
co-opt the term from elsewhere, it appears that the stagnant quo will be the norm, and that
big change is not on its way.  If you are one of the lucky, covered ones, rejoice.  

But if you do not have the bucks or other access to insured healthcare (and in this economy your numbers will be growing), you will continue to be subject to COBRA, pre-existing conditions, or the roulette wheel of no coverage.  

-jackie-