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March 2009

The Obama administration is starting its move to reform healthcare. The following are a couple of little things that come to my mind regarding needed healthcare reform.

This month I went to the Veterans Administration for my annual eye examination. I had to answer a lot of questions about by health history and questions about my habits: so I smoke, drink et cetera. The next day I went for my first and only colonoscopy. Before they performed the procedure again I had to answer at least ten minutes of questions, the same questions. It didn't annoy me, but I am aware that in Taiwan different medical facilities can access via computer a person's medical history from one source. If we adopted this in the United States it would reduce healthcare costs a little.

A more serious problem is the availability of emergency care. The emergency center at a local hospital is filled with people who don't have health insurance and go for scrapes and other minor problems, and people in pain wait for hours. Perhaps healthcare reform will change that.