Posts Tagged ‘Escaping Fire: Designs for the Future of Health Care’
Mark Trahant is a Kaiser Media Fellow examining the Indian Health Service and its relevance to the national health care reform debate. He is a member of Idaho’s Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. Comment here.
Mark Trahant
Today I’m excited for the government. Health care reform should bring nutrition to a starving Indian health system. And, if the next test for health care reform is execution, then the government might be on the right course. The New York Times reported Sunday that Dr. Donald Berwick is the president’s choice to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.
This is a choice that exceeds Moynihan’s rareness of competency. Berwick represents the ideal, the one person you think could help the government, the people and the medical profession come together and a coalesce around the idea of excellent health care. Last December at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement conference I watched hundreds of professionals cheer on Berwick as they would a rock star. This is a doctor who’s willing to talk about what’s really important to people. “Health care has no intrinsic value at all. None, Health does. Joy does. Peace does,” he said in December. “The best hospital bed is empty. The best CT scan is the one we don’t need. The best doctor’s visit is the one we don’t need.”
Imagine that. Doctors we don’t need.
Tags: Alaska Native Medical Center, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, Children's Health Insurance Program, Dr. Donald Berwick, Escaping Fire: Designs for the Future of Health Care, Gwen Florio, Health care reform, Indian Health Service, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Mark Trahant, Medicaid, Medicare, Native American news, Southcentral Foundation