Health care costs are skyrocketing. Health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 8 years, rising 3.7vtimes faster than wages in the past 8 years, and increasing co-pays and deductibles threaten access to care. Many insurance plans cover only a limited number of doctors’ visits or hospital days, exposing families to unlimited financial liability. Over half of all personal bankruptcies today are caused by medical bills.2 Lack of affordable health care is compounded by serious flaws in our health care delivery system. About 100,000 Americans die from medical errors in hospitals every year.3 One-quarter of all medical spending goes to administrative and overhead costs, and reliance on antiquated paper-based record and information systems needlessly increases these costs.
Read the full plan at http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf
Sure seems to be pretty handy that there does not seem to be very much resistance to the $825 Billion economic recovery bill.
Hidden in there is $20 Billion for the first 2 years of Obama’s pledge of $10B per year for 5 years for HIT.
So – it looks like finally, after President Bush’s 2004 proclamation about medical records in an electronic format – there will be a substantial amount of movement in this direction.
I’ve heard that physicians using HIT may receive up to $65,000 to support this. And, since the costs, per physician, may be closer to $35,000 per doctor, there may finally be the financial incentive for doctors to adopt EMRs.