Health Reform ABC’s

What follows is a Google word game. It is designed to highlight major health reform trends.

1) Premises

One, health reform words matter.

Two, the number of times the words are used matters.

Three, Google can be used to aggregate the combination of health reform words used and the number of times they are used. The resulting aggregate indicates health reform trends.

2) Method

I have assembled a list of health reform words starting with ABC appearing in the health reform debate. I have typed in the word or short phrase associated with the word, followed the phrase “health care,” into Google, with these results.

3) Results

A Health reform words, # of times appearing on Google
Access, 113,000,000
Apps, 112,000,000
Alignment 20,100,000 , synonym, Integration, 26,800,000
Affordability 13,600,000
Accountability, 13,000,000
Accounts, health savings, 7,150,000
Across state lines, 6,910,00
Accountable Care Act, 500,000, synonymes
• Obamacare, 500,000
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 461,000

B Health reform words, # of times appearing on Google

Blogs, 333,000,000
Budget, 122,000,000
Bundled Bills, 2,760,000
Bureaucracy, 1,590,000
Berwick, 108,000

C Health reform words,# of times appearing on Google

Cost, 136,000,000
Cancer, 124,000,000
Choice, 116,000,000
Consumer, 97,900,000
Competition, 35,000,000
Collaboration, 23,400,000
Constitutionality,
Consolidation, 16,200,000
Coronary Artery Disease, 11,800.000
CMS, 11,600,000, synonyms
• Health and Human Services, 32,600,000
• Medicare, 22,000.000
• Medicaid, 9,600,000
Checklist, 11,400,000
Crisis, 11,300,000
Comparative effectiveness, 7,320,000
Creative Destruction, 305,000
Constitutionality, 270,000

4) Health Reform ABCs with over 10,000,000 hits

1. Blogs, 333,000,000

2. Costs, 136,000,000

3. Cancer 124,000,000

4. Budget, 122,000,000

5. Choice, 116,000,000

6. Access 113,000,000

7. Apps, 112,000.000

8. Consumer, 97,900,000

9. Competition 35,000,000

10. Collaboration, 23,000,000

11. CMS (Medicare), 22,000,000

12. Alignment, 20,100,000

13. Consolidation, 16,200,000

14. Affordability, 13,600,000

15. Accountability, 13,000,000

16. Coronary artery disease, 11,800,000

17. CMS, 11,600,000

18. Checklist, 11,400,000

19. Crisis, 11,300,000

5) Conclusions

Blogs are an exceedingly common means of commenting on health reform. The American public dreads cancer most among diseases, twice as much as coronary artery disease. Health care access is a big issue. This access includes access for the uninsured and access to doctors, who are in increasingly short supply. The idea of market-driven care with central elements of consumerism, competition, marketing across state lines, and health savings accounts is still alive and well. Medical apps – iPad, iPod, Blackberry, Android, and other mobile social media web applications, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are the rage and are transforming health care. Medicare is serious political issue because of $575 billion of announced cuts over the next 10 years and adverse publicity about paying doctors for pre-death planning and consultation. The public would like hospitals and doctors to set aside their differences and align and collaborate with each other. This may be happening as hospitals and doctors consolidate into larger entities, as more physicians become hospital employees, and as lowered reimbursements, affordability, and accountability drive mergers. One final note. A non-ABC health reform phrase – Repeal Health Reform – is in the air, and it draws 8,700,000 Google hits.