e-Records

There's $19 billion available for electronic healthcare records thanks to the stimulus. Two articles discussing how to put the money to use. Your Doctor's Office or the Internet? AND No Small Change for the Health Information Economy.

Universal Healthcare

http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2009/01/dr-atual-gawande-on-realitybased-reform-why-dont-we-open-the-va-to-the-uninsured-.html

Free VA services for any American. I need to find arguments against the idea of opening the VA up to everyone. Doing that while maintaining our current private system makes a lot of sense. An opposition might be that the VA is underfunded, but preventing emergencies always seems like a good counter-argument making it less expensive and more humane than the SQ. The author's point is that countries develop modern systems based on historical foundations. We have the VA-- why not more fully use it?

Also has good brief descriptions of the foundations and events that led to several European medical systems.

It's based on a New Yorker article written by Atul Gawande. And Q&A with him. REEEEALLY I should have read those before blogging....