PolitiFact | The Obameter: Invest in electronic health information systems:
Quote from ONC Coordinator David Brailler on whether the 2009 stimulus bill had helped overcome the market failure that was preventing wider adoption and innovation in health IT, particularly electronic health record systems:
"I think the investment that the Congress and the administration have made was meant to correct a market failure, which stemmed from the fact that we don't sufficiently reward providers of care for high-performance, lower- cost, higher-quality. We pay them by piece work, whether it's a high-quality or high-cost product or a low-quality product," Blumenthal said. "We will very soon, I think, see that (health information technology) becomes an essential part of doing body care to the American people, one that physicians, nurses, health care institutions don't feel they can afford not to have. And at that point I think the federal government and my office can pass the baton to the professional community, to the hospitals, the nurses of the country, and the market will take off and do its own work for the American people."
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5 comments:
"I think the investment that the Congress and the administration have made was meant to correct a market failure.
The professional community doesn't exactly have a good rep and passing the baton on these unidentified professionals is not very reassuring.
One thing that separates public and private in a democratic country is that provisions for public good are stated as law while private ethics is relatively murkier territory.
What people fail to realize sometimes is that any investment or correction takes time to affect the areas it is suppose to affect. People are ready to give up after 1 year.
Why can't we give everyone some form of health care and why do we keep hearing that it works in other parts of the world?
I have to agree with what mario is saying above. We give up way to fast and say that we need a new leader when it takes a few years to see the change happen.
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