Student SPHere

Well that’s it. Two years sure flies by. And now, I’m sitting in my apartment surrounded by boxes, some packed and some waiting to be packed, eventually all will be shipped to Madison where I’ll begin my public health career. Sounds so mature, almost shocking for me.
To backtrack a little, my master’s project was fine and I felt very satisfied with the final result. The paper got better and better, right up to the end. The presentation, after I rehearsed it a few times, came together when it counted and I got a lot of positive feedback from my peers and some faculty, which felt really great. After the presentations were all done, faculty and students celebrated at a local pub which was a blast. And now all that is left are the goodbyes.
In reflecting on my time here at the U of M, two things are particularly striking. The first is the amount that I learned. Whether the admissions committee knew it or not, when they admitted me, they were admitting someone who was a good student and who was very interested in public health, but probably couldn’t tell you the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. I mean I didn’t know jack. To transform that person from that into someone who is accepted by a fellowship program with great opportunities is significant, and that’s a credit to both the program and myself, so I’ll give a pat on the back to both of us. I really was satisfied in the program’s ability to teach this material and provide some hands on experience and analysis of current health care policies.
The second thing is that at least for me, the program has planted this drive within me to continue to get better in this field. No doubt I will have a lot to learn in my position in Wisconsin and about real world public health practices. But after this education, I feel myself raring to go and not only gain that experience but get better as a professional as soon as I can and start setting some goals for myself. Maybe this isn’t the same for some of my peers, but I think this degree has taught me to be fired up about this field and that my own professional success will be tied to the success of programs and policies that promote health. That’s a motivating aspect that I really like.
Thanks to all of the faculty who helped me out. Thanks to my advisors at the U of M. Thanks to my family and friends for reading this blog. Thanks to everyone who supported me during these past four semesters. Thanks to you all who took the time to read this blog.
See you around.

Posted at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I must apologize for my loooooong absence from this blog. I got caught up in just a little thing called trying to graduate, along with finding an apartment, and as always, writing my master’s project. And now, we’re just eleven days from presentation day. I get chills of joy just thinking about it.
At this point, it looks like the master’s project will end up being a total of 45 pages, which really isn’t that much, but when you’re writing the majority of that from scratch off your own research…well let’s just say it’s a process. But I have learned a ton through that process. My advisors have been fantastic (and also very patient with me) and when this is all said and done I’ll be very happy with my final product.
Classes are nearly over, with just a final group project and a take-home final left for me to complete. But now that graduation is so close, I start to feel paranoid and look at extreme possibilities of how I might not graduate (although they are unlikely). Like I’ve been telling my friends and family, I’ll relax when my name is on the diploma, and when my name is on this lease to this apartment in Madison (boy I forgot what a process that can be).
Speaking of which, I was in Madison about a week ago to look at some places and meet with my future supervisors. Turns out that I will be working with the Wisconsin Medicaid population as well as the state’s division of public health. I’m very excited for this opportunity and really can’t wait to get started. What a concept, coming home after work that I enjoy and not having to worry about homework and papers.
Well, as a friend recently told me, you have to sprint to the finish line. It’s in sight, but until my name is on the paper, ‘none shall sleep.’
See you around the blog.

Posted at 03:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My apologies once again for being so late in having another blog entry. You can understand if I am a little preoccupied. I’m about a month and a day before I will be presenting my masters project to faculty and students. Yikes indeed. There’s really not that much else to say other than I’ve been working my butt off on this paper to make sure that I graduate in time, because if I don’t, that takes away my job. Talk about pressure. To compound that, the key actor interview process for this project is still crawling along at a snail’s pace. I have enough where I can be writing a draft of the final two sections of my paper (which is what I’ve been doing all weekend), but it certainly would have been easier if I had all of the interviews under my belt…or even knew when they would take place.
I did go out Saturday night for a while which was needed for my own sanity. A friend of mine was in town from New York so three of us went to dinner with her. As we left my apartment I realized it had been the first time I had left the building in 50 hours. I’m not exaggerating, just a lot of me staring at my computer, typing away. Anyway, we went to a restaurant called “Seven,” which is downtown and serves all kinds of sushi. I had never tried sushi until about a year ago, but this stuff was delicious. The restaurant was one of these very trendy places, with techno music in the background with that same bass beat every techno song has, combating your efforts to have a conversation. After dinner we went out for awhile (into the cold, as it was in the 20s when we left the restaurant). The next day I felt so much better that I had done something besides school for a bit. But now, it’s back to the grind.
Wish me luck as I write yet another draft. See you around the blog.

Posted at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought I’d drop a quick blog this morning since it has been awhile. For starters, we won’t even talk about my bracket now that Wisconsin lost (I believe a certain alumnus who made a comment on my last blog entry jinxed them, if you’re reading this you know who you are) and that Memphis continues to scorn me after I picked against them in the second round. So much for that.
School has been going very well of late. I’ve been learning a lot in my Medical Technology class. Last week we had a patent lawyer come in and talk all about how to get patents and how often you’ll be sued if you have a good product in hopes that others can also profit from your success. Actually this was pretty interesting, and something I knew nothing about so I feel like I’m getting a lot of good information on the medical technology sector. In about a month I have to present as part of a group project on medical devices that treat obesity, which unfortunately is a rapidly growing market with a lot of money to be had. On one hand it would be great to develop some more devices that could control obesity, but on the other hand (the public health hand I suppose) it’s a very preventable, but far from simple, problem.
I have been trying to be relaxed about the progress of my master’s project, but that’s a little difficult. When we’re able to do interviews, they go very well and dig up some solid information. But we have got to do more! I guess I was naïve in thinking that scheduling key actor interviews would be a piece of cake, but that is proving to be difficult. Until then I have been refining my introduction and methods section, but to be honest that’s not the fun part. I want to write about what we find and why it’s interesting, and preferably before the end of April. In the end it’s going to get done, and it’s going to get done on time (my job depends on it). That should be motivation enough.
Well the rents are in town so I’m off to hang out with them for awhile. Sorry everybody for jinxing the weather in my last blog. I got what I had coming because I wiped out on some ice walking to the bus, leaving me with an arm that still has some pain. At least it’s sunny and warm (high of 47) today.
See you around the blog.

Posted at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is there any month with a better name? Lots of madness is going on here right now that I need to tell you about.
First, and most importantly, the tundra is finally begin to thaw out. We had three or four straight days of sun and temperatures in the 40s. I don’t care if this is boring news to you, cause this is pretty exciting for us up here. I can actually see the grass again! Who needs to go south for spring break? I mean, spring has finally made its way here. By the way, I am not responsible for jinxing this beautiful weather if it were to all of a sudden get frigid again next week. Stranger things have happened.
Second, and nearly as important, my favorite sporting event is almost underway; the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Students and fans of the Golden Gophers are riled up as last night they defeated the favored Indiana Hoosiers with a “Laettner-esque shot” by Blake Hoffarber as the buzzer sounded. Hoffarber caught a pass from the opposite side of the court with 1.5 seconds left, turned on one foot and put up a one handed shot that went in to win! He’s already been named “The Minnetonka Miracle Worker” (he played high school ball in the neighboring suburb, where he sunk a championship-winning shot, from his butt no less, in 2005). So today the Gophers play Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament semi-finals. Very exciting stuff. This time of year is always so distracting for me, because you never know what’s going to happen in these games.
But March Madness could also apply to my schoolwork, specifically my master’s project. Two interviews down, two more scheduled, and six left to be scheduled. And oh yeah, with two months left until the whole thing needs to be done. So far the interviews have gone very well, but I need more to happen soon so I can have some time to write up the results. For now I’ve just been working on revising my introduction and methods section. My goal is to have those two pieces 99% completed before the interviews are over so that I can just focus on the last two sections in my race to the finish line. Not only that, but I received my employment information for my fellowship that begins in July, and in italics it reads, “This offer is contingent upon your completion of all MPH degree requirements.” Just a little added pressure. So in other words, I will finish this project on time, no matter what it takes. Goodbye social life and sleep in April.
Well until then I’m going to keep plugging away with some fine tournament action on in the background. Oh and before I forget again, I mistakenly excluded anything about Brett Favre’s retirement in my last blog. I think I was still in denial at the time. I was crushed, but not surprised. For us Packer fans it is a life-changing moment. I mean, the guy has started every game since I was in third grade!!! He’s by far my favorite sports figure and unless you’re a Packer fan, you truly don’t know how great he is and what he meant to the franchise. Thank goodness I’ve got plenty going on right now to deter me from dwelling on his retirement.
See you around the blog.

Posted at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Good morning. My Graduate Assistantship position is with the Minnesota Health Services Research Conference, which is taking place today, all day. The keynote speaker was from the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard, and his presentation was titled “Pay for Performance in Health Care, Cause for Optimism?” The conference caters to a broad range of public health interests, with both upstream and downstream interventions. Here are the titles to some other sessions going on at the conference today: “Physical Activity in Minnesota,” “Improving Care in Acute and Clinical Settings,” “Customizing Health Education Interventions,” “Interventions to Improve Care for Individuals with Chronic Conditions,” “Health Insurance Coverage,” “Health Behaviors: Obesity and Alcohol Use,” and “Population Differences in Health Behaviors,” to name a few. Many of the presenters are University of Minnesota School of Public Health faculty, and others are here simply to attend. Overall turnout is really good, and the presentations seem very interesting.
With this conference, and three papers that were due earlier in the week, it has been a stressful one for me. I am excited that next week I finally start my key actor interviews for my master’s project. Turns out scheduling phone interviews with CEOs of large physician group practices takes a bit of time. Anyway, I’m excited to stop writing drafts for awhile and go out there and start making some findings (potentially).
With a busy week I’ve been well restricted to my school life and haven’t done much with friends unfortunately. But hopefully that will change this weekend. I think I’m going to kick back a little bit and give my brain a rest. Sounds good to me.
Also, it’s March, we don’t need ice anymore, lets get to Spring already Minnesota.
Well I have to turn my attention back to the conference now, because it’s lunch time. Very very important.
See you around the blog.

Posted at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's a little irony in me having the flu right now (or whatever this is that is making me feel this bad). I mean, a public health student, who knows all about the benefit of vaccines, herd mentality and the like, and I still didn't get a flu shot (in my defense, this year they've been shown to have limited effectiveness, but they'll be better next year). This week I have been struggling to bounce back, but this morning this bug laid me out on the mat. I got up and took some Non-Drowsy Tylenol flu pills, only to find out that when they said Non-Drowsy they really meant Ultra-Drowsy. I'm having a hard time even concentrating on writing this blog, let alone doing school work. Anyway, things are going to get interesting in about an hour when I am scheduled to call my advisor to go through my master's project interview script as a trial run (he will play the role of a CEO that I will interview eventually, and I the interviewer). Maybe I'll preface the interview with "By the way, my head feels detached from the rest of my body."
So thanks to this I've been putting off work that needs to be done pronto. Looks like the weekend is going to be a busy one and I'll just have to crank some stuff out then. I'm going back to LaLa land now. Take care of yourselves.
See you around the blog.

Posted at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well after a phone interview on last Thursday that I thought didn't exactly put my best foot forward, I was called on Monday to say that I got the job! It's with a fellowship in Wisconsin, and while my placement is yet to be finalized, I hope to be working on state health policy. This is a great opportunity for me for two reasons (among others): 1) A fellowship allows me to be working but also will supply me with some extra on the job training; great for me as I don't have a whole lot of experience in the real world of public health, outside of what I did for my summer field experience. 2) There is a lot going on in Wisconsin as far as health policy goes. As one professor said to me "Minnesota likes to think of itself as the state with the most health policy work going on (and to a degree it does have a lot going on) but Wisconsin is really where the action is." Very exciting for me. And also quite a relief to know and now I don't have to worry about it so I can just concentrate on graduating by May. I'll let you all know more about what I''ll be doing for the next two years when I find out where my placement will be.
As for school, I've been in 'calm before the storm mode' for about a week. There hasn't been a whole lot going on recently in school work, but that will change abruptly. In the next two weeks I will begin conducting key actor interviews for my master's project, finishing a midway report on medical devices on the market for treating obesity, completing some last-minute tasks for the conference that I am working for (which is on March 6th), and also keeping up with anything Ethics or Social & Behavioral wants to throw at me. Should be an intense ride for two weeks, but what else is new?
Ethics has been going alright; however, it's one of those classes that I wish was in person for the sake of discussion. We are supposed to post our thoughts on a given case study as an assignment, and it is interesting to read those, but I think in person we would have some better conversations. Same goes for Social & Behavioral, where I am still trying to master the art of online group projects. It's like passing notes around and hoping a good product comes out at the end. So far so good.
Despite the freezediculous (new word Websters) temperatures of late (I think we've been above freezing one time in the last month), I have been going out and seeing friends. Last weekend a friend that I worked with at the same candy shop in high school (check it out here: http://beerntsens.com/) visited the cities. Hadn't seen her in six years, so it was a lot of fun just checking up. We went to the Herkimer to accomplish this. You may remember the Herkimer being mentioned in this blog numerous times last semester, as it was THE Packer bar where I would go to watch the games. Then last night I visited my friend who was recently given a corporate apartment for her work in Minneapolis, right by Lake Calhoun no less (not bad at all). Anyway, she wanted to get together for dinner and wanted to cook, so she gave me a grocery list to pick up and she would cook. What a deal!
Well I'll be in Chicago for the weekend seeing some friends, and then back for a nerdy two weeks. Well, exciting to me at least.
See you around the blog.

Posted at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...viewers would have died of boredom. I barely left my apartment all weekend, focusing much of my efforts on the master's project. This led me to think what a University of Minnesota School of Public Health episode of 'My Life,' the Evan Cole edition would look like.
Evan rolls out of bed at 9:30 on a Saturday morning. Producer: What are you doing Evan? Evan: Well I'm gonna bypass that whole shower thing this morning and just head straight for my desk (aka the kitchen table) and start in on my master's project. 3 hours pass. Producer: Can you tell us what you've accomplished so far? Evan: Yeah...Iiiiii ate a lunch where everything on my plate was the color orange...distracted myself with some YouTube videos, ya know I can't get going without some comedy, and thennnnn....lets see I wrote about four sentences today, solid start. Another 3 hours passes. Producer: Evan, don't you have any plans today to hang out with friends, orrrr go somewhere? Evan: Me? oh no, I'm afraid not. Just me and the master's project today. Plus how motivating is it to go outside? It hasn't been above 0 for the last 24 hours. But hey, if you'll excuse me I have to continue diving into the mound of literature on pay-for-performance to find just the right example for this particular point. Many hours pass. Evan: Well that wraps up a days work for me. Hope that gives you a little sample of my life as a grad student, just trying to graduate in May...you know how I do. Goodnight. Producer:....what a nerd.
Now aren't you glad that video doesn't exist? I am. But in all seriousness I did make progress on the master's project, even though it feels like it is slow going. I think it is particularly challenging because it's more of exploratory research which I haven't really done before. It's a lot trickier to write a solid introduction section for a project that you don't know what results will come up, than for a literature review or a report, which I am more familiar with. I'm still very interested in my topic and I think when it is all said and done I'll feel good about it and feel like it is a well-written paper. But at this point, I'm getting hung up on making sure everything is close to perfect, when it may just be helpful to get something down on paper. Anyway, it will be fine, it's just easy to obsess over something as big as this, especially when that's all you have been doing this weekend.
I do have an interview for a felllowship located in Wisconsin coming up this week. I don't want to say that I'm nervous, but it certainly will be a new experience for me. They told me that the interview will only be 30 minutes, and that it will be over the phone with five interviewers. Plus, they already emailed me the questions that they are going to ask. I'd almost prefer not to know about time constraints and questions, but I can understand why they want to do it this way. So wish me luck; it's a great opportunity for me and I'm hoping for the best.
Also, I did attend the School of Public Health's "Pamoja," which is their annual party. It is also the time of the year where I look around the party and say "Who are all of these people." I mean, most of them I haven't even seen before, let alone spoken to. There's obviously only gonna be so much overlap in classes between majors, but I forget how big this school actually is. A side note: This year, Pamoja decided to provide beer in small dixie cups instead of last year when they would just give you the bottle. Here are the comments that I left unsaid but were coursing through my brain when I was served my small dixie cup of beer: "Oh I'm sorry, I ordered a beer, not a swig of mouthwash." "Is this the beer size that comes with Happy Meals?" "Look, lets cut to the chase here, I'm gonna be back for more in about 40 seconds when the single gulp of this has been consumed. Instead of opening a bottle of beer and pouring a small fraction of it in front of my face, you could just give me the bottle and cut out the middle man." I'm not trying to be critical, just funny, but next time if you're going with the cup method again, just get a keg or something.
For those of you who read my last blog, I have an answer on why some states have blatantly broken federal laws and have set up programs to import prescription drugs from other countries for a much smaller price. My professor said while all of that is illegal, essentially nobody cares enough to fight against it...for now. The demand and the number of patients doing that isn't significant enough, so big pharma doesn't appear to be taking noticeable profit losses due to these programs. But if that demand increases continually, you better believe they'll start throwing their lobbying power around to enforce those laws and stop the programs.
So there you have it. Well, I'm gonna go back to the master's project (what else is new).
See you around the blog.

Posted at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First of all, I need to comment on last night's Super Bowl. Unreal. I have to admit that I was overjoyed to see the Giants win. What a game. The spygate scandal and running-up-the-score early in the season eventually brought the Patriots bad karma at the worst possible time (for them). I was watching the game with my family at my brother's house in St. Paul which was fun. We were teaching my 1 year old nephew to give the touchdown signal, which he eventually did, but the moment he put his arms in the air we all clapped and yelled too loud so he just ended up looking shocked and eventually burst into tears. Whoops, lets hope we didn't ruin his love for football at an early age.
And even when watching the Super Bowl, you may be unaware that you were exposed to public health. I counted three public health adds. My favorite was the one where the camera was interviewing a drug dealer on a corner claiming that "if your kids get high, it's not because of me. Business has been so bad! All kids need to do is look in their parent's medicine cabinet to get high." The point of this add was to notify the public that prescription drugs have become just as dangerous as other harmful illegal drugs that we have feared for years.
Other weekend activities included partying with my nephew on his first and golden birthday. He got a stuffed monkey from me, which he immediately hugged.
Classes have been going fine so far. Each week for my online Ethics course we read a lecture and a couple of articles and post our thoughts on the given topic. I think the most valuable aspect of this is that it gets the students to frame the mission of public health in different ways based on different views on ethics and the responsibility of the community.
We've already accomplished a group project in my Social and Behavioral class, discussing drivers and consequences surrounding childhood obesity. It's a little strange doing those projects, as the class is an online format, and I've never met anyone in my group.
And finally, I'll have a good reason to participate in my Medical Technology Policy course. I read a news blurb about Wisconsin health and saw that they recently started a program where citizens of the state can order prescription drugs from other countries. This is a big deal for two reasons: prescription drugs are much cheaper in other countries, and purchasing prescription drugs from other countries goes against federal law. Saw how are the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri able to do this? I mean, good for them that they are adopting policies to support the health of their state and disregarding a law that was essentially there to support the wild profits of the pharmaceutical industry. But I really don't know how they are legally able to conduct this policy. Don't worry, I'm sure it's a burning question to you too. I'll bring it up in class tomorrow and get you an answer.
See you around the blog.

Posted at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello everyone and happy new year. I'm back from my winter break which I spent in Ohio and Wisconsin. I actually got myself stuck in Wisconsin, but to tell you about that lets go back to last year.
I went to Ohio for my friend's wedding, and for his bachelor party (on Dec. 28th), one of the groomsmen decided that we should play broomball. For those not familiar with this game, broomball is like hockey, only without he skates, played on ice, and instead of puck there is a grapefruit-sized ball, along with sticks with stubby plastic ends that you strike the ball with. When I found out that we were playing this game, two days before the wedding, I had a bad feeling. I told my friend Scott as we were driving to the game "I know somebody is going to get hurt." So ten minutes go by in the game and it's fun. The ball is rolling my way and I wind up to slap it towards the goal. I swing, and in my follow-through my feet slip out from under me (it is ice, believe it or not it's slippery) and as this happens I feel a distinct pop in my right knee. I hit the ice hard, get up quickly trying to shake off the fall, but in doing so I know something is wrong. I limp off the ice and my knee swells quickly.
Now I'll summarize. The knee had been dislocated and popped back into place, in the process chipping some bone. I was on crutches for my friend's wedding and new years (not to mention percocet), rehabbed at home in Wisconsin, and was finally able enough to drive myself, nearly a month after the fall, back here to the cities. Also during that time, my mom fell and broke her wrist and needed surgery, and the Packers lost in OT to the Giants in the NFC Championship. How do you think I feel?
So it could have been a better winter break, but I do feel recharged for this, my final semester. Oh yeah, I should mention I passed all of my classes last semester, just in case you doubted me. Now all that is left is three classes and my master's project. The three classes are the following:
PubH 6020 - Social and Behavioral Science
PubH 6741 - Ethics: Practice and Policy
PubH 6726 - Medical Device Industry
And of course there is the Master's Project Seminar that meets every other week, just to make sure we're not falling behind. Next week when I have more of an impression of these courses I'll write about them.
Until then, I'm going to keep working on the master's project before these classes and a job search start to demand more of my time.
Good to be back. See you around the blog.

Posted at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well I have just scarfed down my victory Chipotle Burrito lunch after I finished my final final, Health Care Economics (what a way to end it). I gotta admit this was one of the more challenging final weeks I've had in my entire collegiate career. It all ended with a 26 page paper, a 12 page paper, a 6 page paper, and an exam in each of my most challenging classes (Finance and Economics) 2 days apart from each other. But hey, that makes it all the more enjoyable to be done with. Just some TA work and I am done with the semester!
Tonight we are going out in downtown Minneapolis to celebrate one of my friend's and colleague's graduation from the program (her second master's no less). Should be a good time to kick back with my friends before we all head our separate ways for the highly anticipated holiday break.
In reflecting upon this semester I have been satisfied with the way it went. Those of you who are close to me probably heard me moan and groan throughout different points of it all. I feel that all the classes had some important lessons to offer, some more than others but I think I will be using all of the skills I learned this semester at some point in my public health career.
In the immediate future waits a trip home to Wisconsin to spend time with my family and my dogs (I mean my pets, not my 'dawgs' like you know, my posse) and some old friends. We'll celebrate Christmas at home and then I'll fly to Ohio for a week to see some college buddies and one of my past roomates who is getting married, not to mention New Years Eve together with a bunch of great people. After a little more relaxation time in Wisconsin I'll make my way back to the Twin Cities.
Further on the horizon lies just one more semester before graduation. Three brand new classes to partake in. It also includes the bulk of my master's project which is very exciting. I can almost see myself doing my final presentation in May. Just 12 more credits to complete and one project to attend to. My Grandfather Fred would always say the same thing in such a scenario:
"What did the monkey say when he got his tail stuck in the lawnmower?"
"Won't be long now!"
Happy Holidays to you all and see you around the blog.

Posted at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hi everybody. That's right, one class has been completed as of yesterday when I handed in a masterful 26 page paper on environmental health issues in Outagamie County, Wisconsin. Ok, probably not masterful, but it's done, and that makes me happy. The topic was Air Pollution and Occupational Safety in the county and was the final project for this course.
So that leaves me with four more classes to complete, the next one up being Research Methods which will be done on Monday when I hand in a final paper for that class. After that it's one more final paper on drunk driving in Wisconsin (man I'm fixing all of that states problems this month), and then a final test in both Economics and Finance, get your calculators ready.
So to distract myself in order to procrastinate from studying or more writing I have been keeping up on health news in the media. One such article that I came across in the Wall Street Journal reported that the American College of Physician's released their statement on universal healthcare, stating that in one way or another the government should implement universal healthcare. On this article readers could post comments about how they feel about the pursuit of universal healthcare, which I usually disregard, but since the spectrum of responses were so varied, I thought it was very interesting. I've decided to post portions of some of these comments, and then comment on the comments from what I've learned in the PHAP program here:

"The government is run by idiots who have borrowed huge sums of money for poorly thought out reasons; why should I support or pay for another poorly thought out program which will abused by both the “patients” and the “physicians”"
- Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Ah yes, just some good old fashioned government mistrust. This is actually a cultural characteristic that we do bring up once in awhile in my classes as to why our healthcare system is what it is.

"There is an abundance of money flowing into the health care system. We need to completely rid ourselves of this mentality that we must be insured...I want to insure me and my family against diseases such as cancer, heart disease, etc.; not for gingivitis and check-ups."
- Good call, who wants to be insured? Certainly not me. I'd much rather pay the full price for my atrial fibrilation prescription out of my own pocket. It's onlyyyyy...over $300 a month. Ok, on second thought I will take the insurance. And why don't you want to be insured for the checkups and primary care? Those are the cheapest things to cover and catch problems before they become expensive, not to mention life threatening. So you're gonna pay for your colonoscopy out of your own pocket? Or just wait till the cancer sets in and then you'll be covered? What a backwards view.

"The problem with everyone having health insurance is that there would no longer be a need for hospitals to control costs. Everything would get passed along to the government."
- You are perhaps unaware of how Medicare works. Medicare decides how much to pay a hospital or physician for a procedure or treatment (called DRGs) and that's that. If the provider wants to make money off of that, they have to find ways to do it efficiently. Other healthcare systems simply own the hospitals, so of course they're not going to charge themselves too much.

"Simplify the system. Policies are written at a graduate school level. Coverage is not guaranteed, understood, nor easily explained when calling the company. Pricing structure is as complicated as the airline industry. Payments are delayed, money is floated. Simplify the system and the waste would be reduced. Healthcare would be easier and cheaper, allowing access to more people. Fewer people would have to fight the system for the coverage they already have, freeing up money to reduce costs and make coverage more affordable."
- Simplification and reducing administrative costs are a good idea, but you can't do that to the entire system unless there is some more government intervention. HMO's have to compete, have to pay their executives, have to market, etc., so their administration costs are obviously higher than a single payer system. In some cases, it takes up 20 cents of every dollar they spend.

"If you try to obstruct the free markets they will punish all of us. Capitalism is a wonderful thing, because eventually someone will come along with a better mouse trap and cover most of these people anyway."
- Still waiting on that mousetrap. When will it come and who is building it right now? I need it bad because about 47 million of my buddies don't have "mousetraps."

"If there is no health care for those who can’t/won’t pay for health insurance, the rest of us will be exposed to TB, now drug-resistant, and other contagious diseases."
- That's an interesting point. It's hard to measure how having so many uninsured or under-insured truly effect the rest of the nation's health. Probably more than you think, whether physically or economically.

"I am consistently seeing costs driven by diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and asthma. There is a need for change in overall health behavior to make accountability a part of the plan. Any of the proposed plans will not result in anything more than pushing monies around. Without real incentives for behavior modification, the health crisis will continue."
- Another good point. Risky health behaviors do produce some high costs for everyone. In some policy classes we have talked about the growing obesity epidemic that may compound the issue of the aging baby-boomers. Not only will we have more of the elderly to take care of, but they're more likely to have health problems relating to obesity, meaning more heart and diabetes cases than ever before. Not an easy solution there.

"...please explain why healthcare is a right. A right against whom? God? Fellow citizens? If someone has an illness, what logic gives that person a “right” to dip into fellow citizens” wallets to pay the bills? In America, “rights” mean legal barriers against actions by the government and its agents. There is no constitutional right for anyone to take money from anyone else."
- Wow, you must be made out of stone. Every man for himself, baby! Personally, I'm not a big fan of leaving people to die from an illness that can be cured because they don't make enough money, but maybe that's just me. If there was someone in your community dying of an illness that would be cured by a $100,000 procedure they couldn't afford, and if everyone in that risk pool donated a quarter that person's life would be saved, wouldn't you do it? Or are would that "dipping" into your wallet be too painful for you?

Finally...
"1. The reason insurance exists (or is supposed to exist) is to spread the risk. That’s why mandating all people to have insurance (single-payer or not) is essential to controlling costs. If you intend for the government to carry the burden for catastrophic care then a single-payer system is the only way for it to recoup costs. If not, it’s private insurance’s responsibility.
2. Free market medicine requires a knowledgeable consumer. How many people here know what the details are of their current policy and those of available alternatives? How about the value of what you’re getting, e.g., cost and quality of their hospital, their physician, and the drugs on their formulary? Do you know what you’re getting for your money? If you can, great. Once everyone is where you are, then we’re ready for a free market. "
- Good one to end on that sord of summarizes this broad topic. What he says about the free market is a huge concern to what is taught in my program. Free market would be great, but the complexities of what things cost, who tells you what you need, what kind of quality you get, lack of cost transparency, that's definitely enough factors to cloud-up a free market.

Well I hope this was enjoyable for you. I just thought it gave a nice variety to what the feelings are on this debate, and how heated it can get. Tremendously interesting...at least to me. If you want to see the article for yourself here it is: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/12/04/docs-group-insure-everybody-one-way-or-another/
I'm done with my holiday shopping, I'm done with this blog....*sigh*, guess I should get some work done.
See you around the blog.

Posted at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well tomorrow is the first day of December, which officially marks the home stretch towards the end of the semester. To be honest, ever since coming back from the Thanksgiving holiday, I haven't been cranking out work as well as I know I can be. Maybe it's the colder temperatures (it was 5 degrees on Tuesday when I walked to the bus stop, talk about an eye opener) or the shrinking amount of daylight or just some mental wear and tear, but it's taking just a little bit more to get me going on some assignments. Not a great time for this to happen as this is the time of the year when all those final papers are due, final exams will be here soon, and that master's project isn't going to write itself.
Yesterday was an interesting day in working on my master's project. For the last few weeks, I have been working hard on developing my questionnaire for the key actor interviews that I will be conducting. Developing interview questions sounds easy, but man, I've written at least four drafts, and every time I meet with my advisers we find new ways to tear it up and improve the questions. I believe with each meeting it improves, but it can be tedious. Then again, this stage of the project is surely the most critical. If we develop bad questions and then do the interviews, then we're going to end up with bad and perhaps inconclusive results, in which case the project would have been a wash. I am getting more and more excited about the project, and will keep you posted as I conduct some of the interviews.
Last night was a break from my sub par production level. My friend, my brother and I went to a bar to watch the Packers - Cowboys matchup, which unfortunately did not go my way. Afterwards my friend and I met up with one of my friends from the PHAP program and hung out at Rudolph's for awhile. Some of us PHAPers are going to get together soon to make some Christmas cookies to get us through these final weeks of the semester. No matter what holiday you celebrate, you can't turn down a Christmas cookie, you just can't!
OK, still need to write another draft of questions tonight and perhaps look at a Finance case study that is due for Monday. See you around the blog!

Posted at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy Thanksgiving from Manitowoc, WI. I hope you all have had the chance to stuff a whole lot of turkey (or tofu turkey, or whatever else you may eat) and everything else on Thursday. This has been a great break for me, hanging out with the family, watching the Packers beat the Lions, repressing public health thoughts like the obesity epidemic just for a little while. Did some homework and TA stuff yesterday as well. I have to say that most of my activities have been playing with my little nephew, which is entertaining for both of us. In fact, I think I'll go back to that right now. Short blog for a long weekend. You understand.
See you around the blog.

Posted at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)