Criticism, Praise for Schwarzenegger Plan

An analyst with the Reason Foundation has written a critique of the Schwarzenegger health plan in which she says that it’s “audacious, ambitious – and awful.” Shikha Dalmia, whose employer is described as a “free-market think tank” (does that mean libertarian?), argues that the plan criminalizes rather than helps the lower-income uninsured.

In this paragraph, Ms. Dalmia neatly summarizes why some critics feel the plan won’t work and will “criminalize” the poor:

These fines might still be much cheaper than buying insurance. In that case, many low-income families could opt to pay the fines or avoid filing taxes altogether — becoming tax fugitives — rather than buying health coverage. In effect, a program meant to help low-income people will tax them or turn them into criminals.

Ms. Dalmia suggests that California wait until the first year results are in for the Massachusetts plan in July. (I think that’s early; mandatory coverage only went into effect on January 1 in Massachusetts.)

Free Electronic Prescription Software Unveiled

Electronic prescription-writing software will be offered free to every doctor in the United States. The product, eRxNow, has been developed by a coalition of technology companies and healthcare businesses.

A conference was held on Tuesday to announce the product. Representatives of the participating companies spoke, as did Newt Gingrich and others. (Gingrich’s Center for Health Transformation has been active in medical IT issues.)

The product was developed by the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI). Corporate sponsors include health insurers Wellpoint and Aetna, and tech companies such as Dell, Microsoft, Sprint, and Fujitsu.

Gingrich and other speakers emphasized the deaths and illnesses that are caused by improperly processed prescriptions, according to one account of the presentation. The president of physician software company Allscripts also acknowledged they hope this initiative will eventually create profitable business opportunities.

The unanswered question: Will doctors’ offices use this service? Presenters said that someone could learn to use the system in a half-hour – but will they? Medical office staff won’t take on a new routine task without encouragement from doctors. So, the success or failure of this initiative rests in large part on how seriously doctors take the initiative’s mission.

A number of health software products have failed because of these “soft” human factors. They, and not the technical issues, are the greatest challenges facing this initiative’s backers.