PolicyGuy

Wednesday, April 27, 2005


Where's Newt? Transforming Health Care.
Never one to tinker at the edges, Newt Gingrich hopes to change health care policy. The grandly-named Center for Health Transformation calls for "system-wide change" that includes "information-rich health savings accounts," "secure electronic health records" and "e-prescriptions," and increasing transparency in pricing for pharmaceuticals and medical services.

In an op-ed written for the Washington Post, Gingrich advocates splitting up the Medicaid and Medicare agency within the federal government into three different agencies, based on the different needs of the healthy poor, the disabled, and the elderly.

Here's his take on eldercare:

the legislation would create a program to serve the elderly that reintegrates the family back into their care. The current system, for example, prevents a daughter whose mother is in an assisted-living facility from contributing financially to her mother's care without losing all Medicaid coverage. This either-or mentality is anti-family and leaves the recipient with a lower quality of life.

The program should also integrate modern information technology systems, home diagnostic equipment, real-time monitoring and rapid health assistance when necessary. For example, a growing company called Living Independently has created the QuietCare home monitoring system, with motion detectors that actually learn an individual's daily habits and routines. The system regularly updates a caregiver on the person being cared for and immediately highlights any atypical patterns. Caregivers use this technology to provide unobtrusive monitoring of seniors in their homes while preserving individual privacy and freedom.


Don't count Newt out. With members such as Health South on board as well as a golden rolodex, the center will be worth watching.

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"Justice Louis D. Brandeis'?s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments ... had almost nothing to do with federalism and everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism. .... To this day, it continues to inhibit a truly experimental, federalist politics." -- Michael S. Greve

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