american health care

At the 12th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC), sponsored by Transparency International, one of the plenary sessions was devoted to the topic of "embedded networks of influence."  The session description included this description of the topic as:

I wish I had gotten to this earlier....  In 2009, Wendell Potter, a mild-mannered former chief of public relations for for-profit health care insurance company Cigna, testified before Congress about how insurance companies manipulated public opinion to support corporate vested interests. 

insurance companies make promises that they have no intention of keeping, how they flout regulations designed to protect consumers .

. . and how they ‘purge’ small businesses when their employees’ medical claims exceed what underwriters expected

The following appeared in the Nov. 27, 2009 Newsweek article "The Hospital That Could Cure Health Care" about the Cleveland Clinic:

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released the second in a series of health care success story reports that document innovative programs and initiatives that can serve as models for a reformed American health care system.

The question came from a Colorado neurologist. "Mr. President," he said at a recent forum, "what can you do to convince the American public that there actually are limits to what we can pay for with our American health-care system?

And if there are going to be limits, who . . . is going to enforc...

The question came from a Colorado neurologist. "Mr. President," he said at a recent forum, "what can you do to convince the American public that there actually are limits to what we can pay for with our American health-care system?

And if there are going to be limits, who . . .

LONDON (AP) -- As President Barack Obama pushes to overhaul the American health care system, the role of government is at the heart of the debate.

In Europe, free, state-run health care is a given....

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />Ten Ways Consumer Driven Health Care is a Proven Success

I have a favorite quote about the impossibly complex bureaucratic structure of the American health care system from Oxymorons by JD Kleinke,(1) (which I used in my "Cautionary Tale" article in the European Journal of Internal Medicine[2]):