Healthcare Financial News

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has issued six principles to help guide reform of the nation's healthcare system.

Noting that the United States healthcare system faces a crisis of access, cost, and quality, the AAMC document calls for U.S. medical schools and major teaching hospitals to play "a pivotal role in improving health and health care and in achieving positive changes in the healthcare system," given their significant roles as health care providers, educators of future physicians, and discoverers of new scientific knowledge. Such reform must improve both healthcare delivery and financing, while preserving the greatest strengths of the current system. The goal of the new AAMC principles is to guide this process.

The AAMC's six principles of healthcare reform affirm that:
• Affordable, transportable, and continuous healthcare coverage that combines the best of public and private systems should be available to all.
• The U.S. system must be restructured to promote wellness and disease prevention, while providing high-quality, cost-effective diagnosis and treatment of illness, as well as palliative care.
• Healthcare financing mechanisms should be sustainable, equitable, explicit, accountable, and promote efficiency and quality.
• Existing programs that serve defined populations should be maintained until superior alternatives can fully replace them.
• The supply of healthcare practitioners must be adequate and reflect the population and its healthcare needs.
• Any reconfiguration of the healthcare system should acknowledge and support the costs inherent in health research, technology development, and the provision of necessary specialized services.

 “With one out of every four Texans without health insurance, the idea of traveling abroad for cheaper health care is gaining traction,” states the introduction to a series of articles on medical tourism published in The Austin American-Statesman.

The series tells the stories of Texans who have traveled abroad for medical procedures, looks at companies that connect patients with overseas healthcare facilities, reports on the growing interest of U.S. insurance companies on paying for medical care received abroad, and considers issues that may arise after a patient returns home. The series web site also features an interactive map profiling countries that have emerged as leading destinations for medical tourism.

In the lead-up to the November elections, the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) has introduced a new national television and online advertising campaign urging women to get answers from the candidates about health care, specifically how each candidate plans to prevent chronic diseases. The 30-second TV spot and 45-second online spot feature Hollywood celebrities such as Mary-Louise Parker, Lauren Bacall, Katey Sagal, and Phylicia Rashad alongside everyday women.

The ad calls on women voters--a particularly influential group in the election--to ask important questions about health care and demand action on an issue that is not only one of the most threatening health concerns to women, but is also jeopardizing the affordability of health care in the U.S. The ad will run on cable networks and online through the November 4 election.

By raising awareness of the costs of chronic diseases, and the impact they have on healthcare cost, quality, and access in this country, the PFCD ad seeks to encourage a substantive, bipartisan discussion of this issue in the context of broader discussions of healthcare reform.