States have struggled with it. Hospitals pray their patients won’t fall over it. Software makers are grinning over it, like the Cheshire Cat.

The massive rock paperweight that keeps our medical records in an ever-growing stack is fossilizing. Fast. As a result, congress, President Obama and insurance providers are shaking hands, creating partnerships and evaluating vendors to send our medical records into the cloud. Poof! Just like that…Up, up and away goes the latest results of your cholesterol test to that great big server in the sky. Paperless healthcare is supposed to create lower healthcare quotes for consumers. But will it?

“We’ve proven that paperless documentation can save costs for one of the most documented segments in the healthcare industry,” says Gerry Stone, founder of Redoc, an electronic medical records software company that specializes in documentation for physical and occupational therapists. “Believe me, if it works for Physical and Occupational rehab, it will work for the rest of healthcare.”

Stone has a point. He built his software platform from scratch 14 years ago, when electronic medical records were but just a glint in Bill Gates’ eye. Since physical and occupational rehabilitation is usually prescribed by health insurance plans to those who injure themselves on the job, Workers Compensation claims (and in the case of post-65-year-olds, repeated Medicare reimbursements) require an average of one hour of a therapists’ time filling out forms after each session. Stone has managed to reduce the hand-driven process of jotting down billing codes and treatment notes down to mere minutes by designing a simple interface of drop-down and text boxes, key shortcuts and the like. That was w-a-y before big Goliaths like Siemens, SAS and open-source companies jumped into the tepid waters of paperless healthcare.

Now that the President has essentially mandated paperless medical practices, the Cloud is gonna get a lot more crowded now. But how soon is now? Depends on who you ask. Software companies are courting their respective Congress persons and the President is waiting for the sky to open up and accept the first pile of medical paperwork. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any protocols drafted to guide how the information is documented, where and how it’s shared and who backs it up and how often. By the time the paperweight gets lifted, the ACLU and other privacy advocates will have their say on how private medical information is managed.

And what about HIPPA (Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)?  When the medical records pile shifts to the servers, we’ll probably have an even L-O-N-G-E-R paper form to read and sign at the pharmacy counter. Figures.

A Wingnut is a person who is (currently) considered a right wing conservative. Someone who sticks to closely to their own political motives and agendas that they cannot see beyond their own ideology. Nothing can change their minds, nothing will sway their vote. They will argue and laugh away the competition.

What happens when people get frustrated with people of this mindset is that they begin to label them as “X” type of person. Once the label is applied, the observer becomes no better than the Wingnut. Why? Because they cannot see past the Wingnuts ideology and recognize the human being that exists within. It is easy to discredit others by listening to a few of their ideas and immediately labeling them based upon that.

This health insurance crisis is surrounded by Wingnut and Wingnut slingers. It stops conversation on both ends. Open up and listen to one another…listen closely, some people are not so concrete in their ideas as one may think.

During a town hall meeting, Obama mentioned “wether we have a public option, or we dont have a public option”, throwing the possibility that he himself is unsure if Health Insurance Reform is going to work or not. Our president seems to be backing down due to the opposition. Whose side is he on? What does he want?

Obama needs to be clear and consistent with his ideas and programs. This is one aspect of the Bush administration that seems to have faded. John Stewart mentioned this on his show on August 17th. We have to hand it to these comedians, they put perspective on the reality of the Healthcare reform situation.

Democrats are losing ground, they are slipping words and terms into their speeches and answers that are creating a wave of unceertainty which threatens to annihalate the fabric of unity in the democratic party.

The way things are going, a Republican win looks prominent in the next election…even with all the problems of the Bush era.

The concept of the filibuster amazes me. To be able to talk a point to death is just plain stupid. This is why our country can’t get things done sometimes, because there are people that are willing to describe how the fungal growth on the underside of a toenail constitutes as a preexisting condition which should allow a person whod evelops cancer to be denied because there is a connection found by Dr. Nick claiming the inhaling of toe fungus fumes causes cancer…and who doesn’t like to smell their own toe fungus?!

Pardon the disgusting example, but it really is true. How are we to even consider, with so much GOP opposition to healthcare reform, that it will ever got off the senate floor? It’s wishful thinking.

Between recesses, breaks, filibuster and tea time, how are we going to get this issue solved?

Here is a list of things that need to be done:

1. Reduce the size of the Reform Bill so its readable and less prone to abuse and error.

2. Cancel all recess, etc. until the bill is fulfilled or tossed out.

3. Filibuster protection, get the thing finished already!

4. Consider the economic impact of what this bill is going to do…imagine all those working in health insurance sales or administration!

I wish congressmen had the time to browse the internet, speak to real people, take e-mails, blog, etc. They would probably see that there are more people living with anxiety due to lack of action on this situation than they think.

Something needs to be done, whether its the Republican way, or the Democrat way, I don’t care. Inaction is the worse possible course.

What is going on with the media? The opinions in regards to who wants healthcare reform are as varied as political third parties. I do not understand why it is that Republicans are adamant that the country does not want political reform, when public polling shows the opposite? Who is pressing who’s agenda?  Who’s side of the Health Insurance debate is the media on, and should they be taking sides in the first place?

Mediamatters reports on CNN’s piece on the fallacy of an unpopular Health Care Reform plan. Over 50 % of popular polls state they are for this reform!

You would think that with TV, Radio and the Internet information would be clearer and more truthful. Unfortunately because we are inundated with all these different mediums and develop preferences toward certain programs over others, each station, party, advertisement reaches out to its strongest benefactors and holds on tight. All this does is fuel the flames of hatred in this country and stagnate our progression as a society economically, technologically and socially.

We aren’t meant for these petty games, fighting over numbers like toddlers over crayons. We are a country that is greater than this, that can rise up beyond these simple matters. We are a country that goes out and takes our destiny with force and power because we are strong and we deserve it and we will survive. This petty squabbling is weakness. Compromise & get it solved and over with already! Votes are the only true sign of who wants what. With all the recesses and filibustering going on in congress it’s no wonder people are mad with impatience.

Everyone in the Health Insurance Industry is frightened, waiting intently to find out what the conclusion is behind the healthcare reform ideas of our new President Barack Obama.

News Junkie Post Writer Dolores M. Bernal writes: “Obama has already said that he does not intent to do a government “take over” of the health care system, but the GOP continues to argue that his true motives are to adopt a single-payer system.”

We can only hope that this is the case. The options are really only two: the government takes over the health care industry and imposes its own standards and policies or it tries to force it to meet standards and policies while allowing it to remain private. One spells the demise of an entire industry and the other requires a huge shift in policy, procedure and pricing. I can’t imagine how long and how tedious its going to be to reform the healthcare system. I can only imagine how many issues and abuses are going to occur during the transition. How many hopspitals and doctors will find patients in the grey “inbetween” as policies are cancelled, shifted, moved over, changed, etc. I can’t imagine doctors taking risks doing expensive surgeries and operations not knowing if they are going to be payed for it or not…It’s unfortunate  most aren’t compassionate enough to do it gratis in the mean time, but its true.

What to do?

Health care costs have increased significantly over the past year. Way higher than wages. This has caused our current crisis in the Health Care industry. This is not to say that the Real Estate Industry didn’t have anything to do with this, as when house prices start spinning out of control and debt soars high, every other industry takes a hit. So now we are on the cusp of a new decision; HealthCareReform: fix the old system and allow it to survive, changing what needs to be changed, or wipe it out by making pretty much everything government controlled. Obama at the center, the country taking sides even more strongly than before…Kind of scary.

In my opinion one of the problems I have seen related to costs is the cost requested by hospitals and doctors for procedures. It almost doesn’t seem standardized, or if it is, it is appraised at too high of a value. If we could get those costs down, then Health Insurance companies wouldn’t t have to charge so much. Then again, with house prices the way they are, it’s kind of hard to justify lowering the amount made by anyone.

This is such a hard decision and it will affect many. Imagine how many will be unemployed if we get rid of private insurance?