Comments on: Health Policy vs. Health Politics http://dukeresearchadvantage.com/laura/2009/07/21/health-policy-vs-health-politics/ Research that Matters Thu, 27 May 2010 07:41:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Steve Hutcherson http://dukeresearchadvantage.com/laura/2009/07/21/health-policy-vs-health-politics/comment-page-1/#comment-357 Steve Hutcherson Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:32:16 +0000 http://dukeresearchadvantage.com/?p=954#comment-357 I agree with your assessment of the "politics vs policies" issue with respect to healthcare. The largest number of Americans will be served by improved access - portable insurance plans, reduction in or elimination of pre-existing conditions, and the ability of individuals or families to join together with others in a co-op that can qualify for group rates when there are no insurance options otherwise available. If we could just get Congress to start here and show that they could get this access problem fixed first, the more complex and expensive issues can be worked out with greater confidence in the ability and competence of the Federal government to offer a workable solution. Anyone who has had the misfortunate to file for reimbursement through Medicare or Medicaid can understand what inefficiency and ineffectiveness is all about in the central run system. I am the CEO of a venture funded biotech company. We discontinued company paid health insurance benefits at the beginning of this year as our financial ability to continue to pay decreased with no near term availability of funds for re-capitalization. If we would been required by Federal law to provide healthcare insurance or face fines/surtaxes instead, we would have been bankrupt by now. Having spent my entire career in pharmaceutical R&D, I favor Federal law that prohibits direct advertising of prescription drug products to patients because the risk to benefit of these products is too complex to explain in a one minute TV ad and to be understood about most patients. I would like to see some of the money now spent on these ads channeled into a pool of funds available for innovation of new therapeutic products and devices or to help make needed pharmaceutical affordable for the poor and elderly. The frustrating part of what we are watching happen in Congress today is the seemingly hopeless situation of finding a way to get our representatives focused on what we really need versus what we would like to have but probably cannot afford. Steve Hutcherson Fuqua EMBA 1979<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('357','Steve Hutcherson','I agree with your assessment of the \"politics vs policies\" issue with respect to healthcare. The largest number of Americans will be served by improved access - portable insurance plans, reduction in or elimination of pre-existing conditions, and the ability of individuals or families to join together with others in a co-op that can qualify for group rates when there are no insurance options otherwise available. If we could just get Congress to start here and show that they could get this access problem fixed first, the more complex and expensive issues can be worked out with greater confidence in the ability and competence of the Federal government to offer a workable solution. Anyone who has had the misfortunate to file for reimbursement through Medicare or Medicaid can understand what inefficiency and ineffectiveness is all about in the central run system.\n\nI am the CEO of a venture funded biotech company. We discontinued company paid health insurance benefits at the beginning of this year as our financial ability to continue to pay decreased with no near term availability of funds for re-capitalization. If we would been required by Federal law to provide healthcare insurance or face fines\/surtaxes instead, we would have been bankrupt by now.\n\nHaving spent my entire career in pharmaceutical R&D, I favor Federal law that prohibits direct advertising of prescription drug products to patients because the risk to benefit of these products is too complex to explain in a one minute TV ad and to be understood about most patients. I would like to see some of the money now spent on these ads channeled into a pool of funds available for innovation of new therapeutic products and devices or to help make needed pharmaceutical affordable for the poor and elderly.\n\nThe frustrating part of what we are watching happen in Congress today is the seemingly hopeless situation of finding a way to get our representatives focused on what we really need versus what we would like to have but probably cannot afford.\n\nSteve Hutcherson\nFuqua EMBA 1979'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I agree with your assessment of the “politics vs policies” issue with respect to healthcare. The largest number of Americans will be served by improved access – portable insurance plans, reduction in or elimination of pre-existing conditions, and the ability of individuals or families to join together with others in a co-op that can qualify for group rates when there are no insurance options otherwise available. If we could just get Congress to start here and show that they could get this access problem fixed first, the more complex and expensive issues can be worked out with greater confidence in the ability and competence of the Federal government to offer a workable solution. Anyone who has had the misfortunate to file for reimbursement through Medicare or Medicaid can understand what inefficiency and ineffectiveness is all about in the central run system.

I am the CEO of a venture funded biotech company. We discontinued company paid health insurance benefits at the beginning of this year as our financial ability to continue to pay decreased with no near term availability of funds for re-capitalization. If we would been required by Federal law to provide healthcare insurance or face fines/surtaxes instead, we would have been bankrupt by now.

Having spent my entire career in pharmaceutical R&D, I favor Federal law that prohibits direct advertising of prescription drug products to patients because the risk to benefit of these products is too complex to explain in a one minute TV ad and to be understood about most patients. I would like to see some of the money now spent on these ads channeled into a pool of funds available for innovation of new therapeutic products and devices or to help make needed pharmaceutical affordable for the poor and elderly.

The frustrating part of what we are watching happen in Congress today is the seemingly hopeless situation of finding a way to get our representatives focused on what we really need versus what we would like to have but probably cannot afford.

Steve Hutcherson
Fuqua EMBA 1979

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