The Health Care MacGuffin
Kari Chisholm
In film, a MacGuffin is a physical object that drives the plot of a story forward. In 1939, having coined the term, Alfred Hitchcock noted that "in crook stories it is almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers." Say, the ark in Raiders of the Lost Ark, or that mysterious briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
Well, as TA Barnhart noted last week, Multnomah County Democrat Sue Stinson has been holding on to a magazine from 1960 with a cover story about the "crisis" in the American health care system. But a few weeks ago, Sue sent that magazine on a journey to rival the best Hollywood MacGuffins.
When Howard Dean was in town for a health care forum with Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Stinson showed up with the magazine. She gave it to the Congressman, having long promised it to him, as a statement about how long America's been waiting for health care reform.
Then, as he recounts in a post on his blog, Congressman Blumenauer took the magazine to the White House for a meeting with the president.
When I had my opportunity to exchange some thoughts with the President, I used the magazine as an illustration of how high the stakes were and my commitment to work with him to make sure that 49 years from now people aren't going to be having the same debate and wonder why we came close but couldn't give Americans the health care they need and deserve.
When the meeting was over, the president's chief of staff - Rahm Emanuel - took the magazine to deliver it to the president.
And yesterday, President Obama used the magazine in his speech before the American Medical Association. From the transcript:
The other day, my friend, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, handed me a magazine with a special issue titled, The Crisis in American Medicine. One article notes 'soaring charges.' Another warns about the 'volume of utilization of services.' And another asks if we can find a 'better way for paying for medical care.' It speaks to many of the challenges we face today. The thing is, this special issue was published by Harper's Magazine in October of 1960.
Wow. Maybe it was Sue's magazine that was in that mysterious briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
If the President really is able to finally deliver on universal health care, I'm hoping that Sue's magazine finds its way into the Smithsonian. Good work, Sue!
(One last note: No reason for the magazine to stay secret. Earl's posted scans of all the articles on his website. Check it out!)
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1:49 a.m.
Jun 16, '09
Full disclosure: My firm built Earl Blumenauer's website, but I speak only for myself.
Jun 16, '09
a magazine from 1960 with a cover story about the "crisis" in the American health care system. This is starting to look like one of those things that everyone complains about that isn't really so bad.
Sort of like running out of oil - every 20 years or so.
Or the climate is careening out of control - like it has for millions of years.
Or our children are worse than we were.
Shouldn't we be trying to solve real problems like those few people still living in poverty, the scientific illiteracy of the press or the economic illiteracy of the progressives instead of wasting resources on non-problems?
Jun 16, '09
Getting booed by the AMA over not wanting to be seen as reining in the malpractice awards that helps to float one of his most reliable lobbies makes for a really hot start.
We all must make sacrifices. Well that is we all need to sacrifice save for me and my cronies.
Jun 16, '09
Wow! I feel like I'm listening to Paul Harvey: "And now for the rest of the story.....".
Jun 16, '09
It's typical of American anything that, having little history, we just make some up and make a fetish of the little we have.
We have to get some cajones and simply say, "this is a new approach", without that immediately tarring the proposal. Most Dems seem to have accepted the John Birch/Repulican mantra that nothing new is good. It's like society types having to trace their ancestory to the Mayflower. The logic is invalid.
And the history is usually bad. I was truly shocked at the usually sagacious heads that parroted the most banal Boston Tea Party narratives during the teabagging protests. Wasn't that your point? Misapplication of history? The selfish, narrow, monied interests that are driving the one, drove the other. Not convenient to the party line, such complications are discarded in favor of a poor grade school narrative of the event.
If you doubt how part and parcel revisionist history has become as a political device, note how every keynote speech at the party conventions contains a line that praises a dead member of the opposition party. You'd think Shrub's favorite pol was Harry Truman.
8:35 a.m.
Jun 16, '09
This story is so cool. It is almost like Sue getting on Opra, only better.
8:36 a.m.
Jun 16, '09
This story is so cool. It is almost like Sue getting on Oprah, only better.
Jun 16, '09
A major problem with the health care debate is that we are being offered plans concocted by small groups of people, including those coming out of the White House and Wyden's office. Most of these proposals are tainted by a reasonable suspicion that they are influenced by insurance companies that have donated to respective political campaigns and are looking for returns on their investments.
Let's consider the basic reality. We are talking about providing a health care system for more than 300 million people. That is humongous. Surely, this challenge needs to be taken over by a non-partisan (not a bi-partisan) commission with sub-committees addressing the many varied aspects that are involved. This will very likely mean a long, drawn-out process, but it is more likely to get it right. Whatever we get we will be stuck with for a long time. If it is the wrong plan, then we will very likely not be any better off than we are now. To the contrary, we might be worse off.
Common Dreams has a couple of interesting related articles: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/16-4 and http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/16-3
Jun 16, '09
One aspect of the health care debate that is often overlooked is the multitude of places where we pay for health care.
We all know about the cost of primary medical insurance, but we also pay for medical care in our auto insurance. I just got my auto insurance renewal, and 61% of it is for "Personal Injury Protection, includes Medical, Income Loss".
One way to help sell a single-payer plan to doctors is that medical malpractice rates would drop dramatically if the system took care of medical bills.
In fact, we would save a great deal of money in our justice system with a single-payer plan, since a huge percentage of the contested amount in personal injury cases involve future medical bills.
If those medical bills were taken care of by the system, many more lawsuits would be settled before trial, and many would be settled before getting to the lawsuit stage.
Jun 16, '09
Obama has called for cuts in funding for Medicare and Medicaid, the federal health insurance programs for the elderly and the poor, including the elimination of subsidies for hospitals that treat uninsured patients.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the essence of the administration’s health care policy, under the guise of universal coverage, is a downgrading of care for the majority of the population so as to cut health care costs for business and the government.
That's the "public option".
Jun 16, '09
I am a progressive with health insurance through my employer. I have dreamed that health care reform would (a) cover all the currently uninsured, and (b) reduce the stress on me so that if I lose my job or wish to retire early or become a barista or whatever, I would not have to fear that my wife and I would become uninsured.
Not clear that the latest and greatest plans will do anything to address my concerns. 3410 days until I can sign up for Medicare. That appears to be the only answer to my concerns.
Jun 16, '09
Sue - You Go Girl!!!
Jun 16, '09
Thom Hartmann stated on the radio this morning or yesterday that the AMA did not poll its members before making the anti-public plan statement and he cited another survey showing well over 90% of doctors and nurses supporting a public plan. My internet searches have not yet found evidence to support these claim although I wouldn't be surprised if they were true. Anyone else see/hear this?
12:33 a.m.
Jun 17, '09
Thom Hartmann stated on the radio this morning or yesterday that the AMA did not poll its members
Presumably, like all advocacy organizations, the AMA is governed by an executive director and a board of directors. Typically, those folks don't need to go to the membership for a vote for everything.
Which doesn't mean that the AMA's members agree with the AMA's official position (or that it'll stick long-term), but there's no reason to get all conspiracy-minded about it.
11:56 a.m.
Jun 17, '09
Interesting article in the New Yorker about the key issue in the cost of health care.
Jun 17, '09
fbear:
One way to help sell a single-payer plan to doctors is that medical malpractice rates would drop dramatically if the system took care of medical bills.
Bob T:
Yup -- when the government takes over, it won't allow you to sue (i.e. win), and doctors will be protected like the way bad cops are. This is "progress". There are far too many lawsuits as it is, thanks to America have more lawyers per capita than any country on Earth.
Bob Tiernan Portland
Jun 18, '09
BOB T "Yup -- when the government takes over, it won't allow you to sue (i.e. win), and doctors will be protected like the way bad cops are. This is "progress". There are far too many lawsuits as it is, thanks to America have more lawyers per capita than any country on Earth."
Where did you get this information? No one is talking about socialized medicine -- there is no support for such a thing.
What is being discussed is socialized insurance -- which is what all insurance is, anyway, but with a larger risk pool. It's cheaper by about 25% because the country would, in essence, be "buying" insurance wholesale like the rest of the industrialized world, rather than wholesale, due to the lack of the middleman.
Jun 19, '09
I purchased the ralph lauren polo t-shirt for my friend as a gift and he was SO excited he wore it the very next day. When I asked him about how many compliments he received he just grinned. Apparently everyone loved it!
While it's such a great shirt, just be such not to over wear it!
Jul 1, '09
This really is a nice post to read out. According to my point of views, we must all attempt to get to the bottom of genuine troubles such as those a small number of populace at a halt living in scarcity.