Blogging doggerel - "Eight Simple Rules for Health System Reform"

Title for American Medical News article, May 11, 2009

•Protect families’ financial health.
Health costs shouldn’t destroy wealth,
But today how do you define a family?
What about the extended multifamily?
And what about entitlement stealth?


•Make health coverage affordable.
This sought-after goal is undeniable.
But what’s the catastrophic ceiling?
How much should we pay for healing ?
What’s justifiable and verifiable?

•Aim for universality.
Strive, strive for morality.
It’s a wondrous dream;
It’s a lustrous theme,
as elusive as immortality.

•Provide portable coverage
From insurance never disengage.
No matter where you are,
Never to payment to say au revoir
No matter who pays your wage.


•Guarantee choice,
Give patients a voice,
Let them have their way,
Let them choose who to pay,
And who to ask for the invoice.

•Invest in prevention and wellness.
Nothing beats health awareness,
everybody now agrees.
It requires no fees.
And for each more is less.

•Improve patient safety and quality.
These two things have a real affinity.
Hospitals should pose no danger.
Quality should be game changer.
Safety and quality are about serenity.



•Maintain long-term fiscal sustainability.
Health care should be designed for perpetuity.
Bankruptcy from health should be unthinkable.
A nation’s health system should be unsinkable.
Somehow we must achieve fiscal viability.