Steven Hall, MD

Recent Activity

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  Steven signed the petition | about 1 year ago

  South Africa: Take Action to Stop 'Corrective Rape'
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  Steven signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Urge Discovery Communications to Drop Sarah Palin's New Show
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  Steven signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Tell Congress to Permanently Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
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  Steven signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Pass Legislation to Get Corporate Money Out of Politics
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  Steven signed the petition | almost 2 years ago

  Tell The Senate To Stop Wall Street Gambling
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  Steven commented on the article | about 3 years ago

  Universal Health Care: What Does Winning Look Like?

  Tim is right about the three legs of the stool. But cost is one leg that can telescope to infinity if the major reason for the rising cost of healthcare is not addressed. And that is, simply, the Allopathic world view. What is that? It is the way conventional doctors and administrators see the world. Conventional medicine is based upon one major assumption: you are a skin bag of biochemical reactions. If we just knew what those reactions were, we could pour in other chemicals and you could be the person you want to be. This is the assumption driving all of the pharmaceutical research and drive for more fancy and invasive surgeries. 
  The only answer to cost that allopaths see is rationing care. The combination of single payer, universal access and allopathic world view is one that you do not want. Believe me. 
  We can get around this dilemma by either changing medicine to be truly preventative (you talk to an allopath about prevention and they think you're talking about immunizations and a few screening tests.) Conventional medicine is great for traumas and surgical emergencies, it is very poor at keeping a civilian population from getting sick in the first place. There is much more that can be done in the realm of prevention that could save the US billions of dollars and decrease medical utilization without the need to ration care. 
  Another fix to the dilemma would to offer universal access but not through a single payer. With a single payer, there would be no incentive for innovation or to be responsive to the needs of those served. Healthcare is too important to put it all into just a few hands. It needs to be responsive to and accountable to the people. The best way to do this is to have it paid for by local, non-profit companies that are publicly regulated, much like a public utility. 
  We also need to uncouple research into the concepts and modalities that are truly health and cost effective from drug companies. Right now, drug companies pay for the majority of medical research and up to 90% of post-graduate medical education. So what are doctors going to be taught? Publicly funded medical research will free the scientific community to gather the data needed to sway doctor's thinking toward true prevention. 
  We want our medical system to give us universal access, be cost and medically effective and responsive to our needs. We need to plan carefully for what will give us this. This kind of opportunity and momentum for change doesn't come up often, we need to use it wisely. 
  Steven M. Hall,MD www.stevenmhallmd.com