Fwd: qotd: Matt Anderson questions his "medical home"

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: qotd: Matt Anderson questions his "medical home"
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 10:01:56 -0700
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>



Health Affairs Blog
March 17, 2014
Nine Questions About My New Medical Home
By Matthew Anderson

Sometime in the past five years — it's hard for me to say exactly when —
I suddenly found myself living in a new home. I must admit I am still a
bit disoriented by how this happened. But it did. People keep telling me
that everything will be ok but I am not entirely sure.

1. Is this a home or is it a hostel?

2. Will my old friends still be welcome in my new home?

3. Does Mommy love me or is she just paid to say so?

4. Why are we playing computer games during family time?

5. Are there any family secrets left?

6. Everyone tells me how important I am, so why is my allowance being cut?

7. Do I have to go to Church now?

8. Can we get some family therapy?

9. Can't we afford a better home?

There was a time when family medicine saw itself as a counter-culture in
medicine with a mission to incorporate a different set of values. Our
job should be to improve the wellbeing and health of our patients and
their communities, not the bottom line of the corporations who thrive
off our labor.

Such a dream will not happen until health care is seen as a public good
instead of a private commodity. A national health system, it seems, is
the only economically rational and humane way forward.

****


Comment by Don McCanne

What is a patient-centered medical home? To some it means the place you
go to get health care - full primary care and a convenient and efficient
entry path into more specialized services. To others it means a way of
organizing the business of health care to make it more accountable for
reducing costs, guided by the dictates of private insurers and
government bureaucrats implementing the Affordable Care Act.

Matthew Anderson's nine questions about the nature of the medical home
should serve as a teaser to read the full article on the Health Affairs
Blog. It is not simply about the medical home concept, but it questions
the whole direction in which our health care system is headed. Not only
should you read it, but you should download it and share it with others.

Dr. Anderson has the right values. He is a driving force behind The
Social Medicine Portal (An Alternative to Corporate Health) and an
editor of the journal, "Social Medicine."

The Social Medicine Portal:
http://www.socialmedicine.org/welcome-to-the-social-medicine-portal/

Social Medicine:
http://www.socialmedicine.info/index.php/socialmedicine/index

Repeating his astute words, "Our job should be to improve the wellbeing
and health of our patients and their communities, not the bottom line of
the corporations who thrive off our labor. Such a dream will not happen
until health care is seen as a public good instead of a private
commodity. A national health system, it seems, is the only economically
rational and humane way forward."