Critical - What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis

I had high hopes for this book. Except for the one innovative idea, the creation of a Federal Health Board, this was an average book compared to the many available which detail the challenges of our dysfunctional healthcare system far better. The book is an easy read, doesn't cover much in depth, but highlights all of the key points one needs to know to speak intelligently about the healthcare system (and presumably to be Secretary of Health and Human Services).

It is unclear whether creation of a Federal Health Board will be able to provide the impetus needed to make the American healthcare system higher quality, less costly, and more inclusive with universal coverage. One thing is clear from his book and that is Americans want a better healthcare system than currently exists. It won't be a pure single payer government run system. It won't be a free market private industry program. It will be a hybrid. What type of hybrid? Time will tell.

The book is divided into five parts. Part One details the healthcare system in crisis filled with individual anecdotes on how it has bankrupted, failed, and at times killed people without adequate insurance coverage or financial means to pay for care.

Part Two talks about the history of healthcare reform, which covers the beginning of the twentieth century. It highlights efforts by President Truman, Medicare and Medicaid legislation, as well as attempts in the 1970s, 1980s, and the early 1990s.

In Part Three, Daschle looks at why reform hasn't occurred. He begins to build his case for creating a new entity, a Federal Health Board, which is modeled after the Federal Reserve as well as the British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Part Four he focuses in on how the Federal Health Board would be structured (a central board with several regional boards). As an independent body, it would recommend that only medications, treatments, and procedures backed by medical evidence and not by marketing be covered under government run insurance plans. It would also determine what criteria and benefits private insurers must offer to participate in expansion of the FEHBP (Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan). This new market would insure those unable to get employer-based or government run insurance programs currently.

Finally in Part Five, he makes the case on the likelihood for healthcare reform.

The best part of the book is Senator Daschle's perspective on the healthcare reform attempt by the Clinton administration, particularly how excitement and momentum moved the country towards reform only to see external events, special interest groups, as well as political missteps, caused it to die. Without a doubt, future leaders who hope to forward any healthcare reform package would best learn what not what to do.

Davis Liu, M.D., is a practicing board-certified family physician and author of the book Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely - Making Intelligent Choices in America's Healthcare System. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Learn more about what you must do to stay well at http://www.davisliumd.com/ and at http://www.davisliumd.blogspot.com/

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Water is a Global Crisis and Critical Challenge

Water is life and few can deny that here on Earth, without out the Earth Species simply do not do well at all, if the water goes so too does 90% of the species on this planet. I thus, would like to recommend a very good book to you:

"Water; A Global Challenge" Journal of International Affairs from Columbia University - Spring/Summer Edition 2008.

This work is a compilation of 13 very insightful essays and researched reports on Water issues that humanity faces from nearly every continent. There is an essay that dispels the myth of the water wars of past periods and discusses how international water disputes generally are dealt with. Each of the essays explains various crisis and how these challenges are currently being solved or how they are running ramped out of control.

The politics, economics, health and humanity of water is discussed, as well as future schemes of commoditizing water, and using price to control usage and conservation efforts. Learn about water issues in Australia, Middle East, Asia, Europe, United States, Bolivia, Andes Mountain Range and other places throughout the world.

Water is critical to humanities existence and the issues of scarcity, seasonality, droughts, flooding, pollution, cost are all very important components, which are brought to the forefront in this collection of works. The "Millennium Development" project is also discussed to bring everything into proper perspective to deal with this huge issue, as mega cities run out of water and billions of people attempt to survive with little if any fresh, safe and clean water.

For more insight check out:

http://www.worldthinktank.net/pdfs/TheFlowofWater.pdf

"Lance Winslow" - Online Blog Content Service.

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The Iran Threat - President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis

"'God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism.'-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, October 26, 2005? (p. 25).

Alireza Jafarzadeh, former media director for the Washington, D.C., office of the Iranian parliament in exile, brings together published reports and his own inside "sources" to paint a scary picture of Iranian leadership and its intentions. He sees the surprise come-from-behind victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential elections as a carefully orchestrated action by Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei to make "the presidency a zealous and aggressive mouthpiece for his radical Islamic agenda" (p. 28). (The 2007 book of course doesn't cover this year's disputed Iranian election.)

Much has been written about the "aura" Ahmadinejad said he felt surrounded him during his address to the United Nations in 2005. "I felt the atmosphere suddenly change and for those 27 or 28 minutes the leaders of the world did not blink... It seemed as if a hand was holding them there and had opened their eyes to receive the message from the Islamic republic."

The author sees Ahmadinejad's spirituality as "convoluted and hypocritical," and his escalation of speeches about "Iran's duty to prepare for the 'return of the Mahdi'" as "grasping at straws to survive" (p. 30). He says the Iranian economy "is in shambles" and that the Iranian leadership "has never been more vulnerable," but that doesn't make the apocalyptic rhetoric less frightening (p. 235).

"This is Ahmadinejad's manipulation of the concept that the Mahdi will return in a time of great turmoil; the rallying cry of 'nuclear rights' is Ahmadinejad's justification for creating an atmosphere of global turmoil to signify that the Mahdi will come soon..." (p. 31).

Jafarzadeh sees Iran as "ground zero for international terrorism" and the source of much of the unrest in Iraq. "In addition to sending Iranian operatives to enter Iraq posing as religious pilgrims, the Iranian regime has recruited an enormous network of agents within Iraq itself," he writes of Iran's intelligence network. "In July 2006 my sources in Iran uncovered facts about Iran's training and support of Iraqi militias" (pp. 61, 105, 108).

The author discusses the various approaches being used to address Iran's nuclear threat. The diplomatic option has not worked, and is even counterproductive in his view.

But he does not endorse the military option "because I believe that the Iranian nuclear threat should have an Iranian solution, conceived of and implemented by Iranian patriots with the support of the international community."

He also believes Iran's nuclear facilities would be very hard to hit with precision air strikes, if the West is even aware of the location of all of them. "Second, a military attack on Iran would change its image from that of antagonist...to that of a victim of western aggression." He also points out that Tehran would "reach out to its support base among terrorist states and Islamist terrorist groups throughout the Middle East" (p. 218)

Alireza Jafarzadeh's reliance on underground "sources" (he hadn't been back to Tehran since the summer of 1979) and his agenda for regime change in Iran cloud some of the conclusions of the book. However, this book gives some background to a major crisis in today's world.

Mike Bennett is the editorial content manager for the United Church of God Web sites (http://www.ucg.org/) and writes the blog "Forward to the Kingdom" (http://ucgmikebennett.wordpress.com/).

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