Health Care
In this hour of Here & Now, we talk with Roger Hughes of the St.
Lukes Health Care Initiative about the state of health care in Arizona:
- 20% of the Arizona population is enrolled in AHCCCS, the state's health plan for low-income people.
- 80% of the uninsured hold jobs.
- We'll talk about crowded emergency rooms
- We'll also talk about the state's prescription drug program for seniors, and more...
We invite your phone calls at 480-774-8200.
You can also post your comments online using the "comments" link below.
Please note: The web site for
St. Luke's Health Initiatives at
www.slhi.org is referenced during the show.
Posted by
kjzz at
13:00
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Comments (3)
In this geographic area, there can be a language barrier---and certainly not just Spanish.
I have worked with both Vietnamese and Chinese, and nothing could be more challenging than trying to determine what is wrong and where it hurts--with no one to interpret for the doctor. Is there any established pool of interpreters , for several languages?
Terry,
I'm home sick today and got to listen to your discussion. I wanted to ask a question about the profit motive in health insurance and I wished I would have had a chance to have had you ask a question about the efficacy of a single payer plan. I can't help but think if we cut out the profit motive and run it like a water department where costs of upkeep and improvements in the sytem are built into the rate you pay, then we should be able to afford everyone a basic level of healthcare coverage as a basic human right in this country. We can then institute additional private health insurance programs, for those that wish to pay for it, and that desire a Cadillac/Tiffany/caviar level of service.
Keep up the good work!
I enjoyed hearing the discussion with Roger Hughes, and was pleased to be able to participate. At Wickenburg Healthcare Alliance (An AZ non-profit corp) we are exploring not just the simple problems but an extreme makeover of our healthcare delivery system, with particular attention to a cooperative program. In this, patients and providers, without the intervention of insurance companies or government agencies, plan, prioritize, and implement the featues they agree are needed. This includes attention paid to medical errors and their management / correction without legal intervention. All of the proposals currently bouncing around the country address single issues (avilability, cost of care, cost of insurance, cap on awards for malpractice, etc) and are likely to fail through neglect of the whole.
Thanks for a good program.
