Krankenkasse works great in Österreich until you don't want to wait for your knee replacement or hernia repair or cataract extraction without waiting for 12-18 months. Then you'd better have some cash for the "envelope". The Canadian system also works great, until it is YOUR heart surgery, as we recently saw with Danny Williams, the premier of Newfoundland. They found a way to "adapt" in their Complex Adaptive System.
If you want to get something done, you incentivize it. The problem is, we have incentivized the system we have, be it health care, politics, or finance. We actually had a better health care delivery system in the 1980's, before we tinkered with it. Spent less % of GDP, no access problem, health insurance affordable and charity care took care of those who didn't have it. Physicians actually spent time with patients and some even made house calls as late as then. Porter and Teisberg, in "Redefining Health Care: Creating Value Based Competition on Results" described the downward spiral because of destructive zero-sum competition. They also outlined the only sane answer to the problem, but nobody is listening. Russ #3 On Feb 13, 2010, at 2:55 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote: > Where does all this whining about health care > come from? Everyone in Germany has a health > insurance, it is obligatory. There is general > agreement here that the European (and esp. > the German) health care system is better > and more social than the one in the US. > The USA obviously needs a better health care > system. Where is the American optimism and > the "i believe we can do it" spirit? I've heard > that optimism and positive thinking is a typical > American attitude. > > America is lacking a vision, something like > Kennedy's vision to bring a man to the moon > and back. Military and NASA won't do it > this time. A vision or a common dream which > would foster technological innovation. Schmidt > mentioned "renewable energy" and green > technology. What about a clean L.A. with > fresh air? A large scale scientific initiative > to create the first AI would be another one. > America would have the resources to do it, it > has the companies with the largest data centers. > It should be proud of Google, Microsoft, > Amazon, and Apple. It is difficult to understand > why it disputes about health care so long. > > -J. > > ----- Original Message ----- From: Roger Critchlow > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 6:54 PM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Sources of Innovation > > [...] We're too busy defending ourselves from hedge fund vampires and health > care ghouls to worry about growth. Say what you will about the undead, they > steal their profits fair and square and invest them in the rule of law. > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
