From singing “Happy Birthday” to Geoff Gilmore, to four Paul Harris presentations, to a speaker who tackled one of our country’s BIGGEST issues–all that and more was jam-packed into our one hour together last week.

Presenter Don Klosterman 021517

Don Klosterman discusses health care.

Don Klosterman, a volunteer with Health Care For ALL Oregon, was the speaker. Believing that “the prospect of high-quality, affordable health care for everyone is a measure of our wholeness as a nation,” Don had four goals with his presentation:

  • to educate the community about the U.S. health care system relative to what other countries do and spend
  • to offer hope to imagine what could be
  • to build bridges
  • to advocate to establish health care for ALL in Oregon

According to 2010 data Don presented, the U.S ranks 37th in the world for health care outcomes.

“We spend a lot of money, but aren’t doing health care as well as some other countries,” he said. One specific example– the U.S. infant mortality rate is still two and half times the rate of Sweden’s.

Don asked us to think about what standard our country should use when it comes to providing health care. A moral standard? A “best practices” standard? He gave examples of each.

Don explained there are basically 5 major health care systems in use in the world today:

  • The government financed, government delivery system, used by Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Scandinavian countries. The goal is that no individual pays directly for health care
  • The government financed, private delivery system, used by Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea. Don described this as “Medicare for All.” He said their costs are lower due to an efficient payment system and the governments’ negotiating power for things like prescription drugs
  • The private insurance, private delivery system, used by Germany, France, Belgium and Switzerland. In this system, which was started in the late 1800’s, companies are nonprofit and can’t deny claims. They compete on service
  • The individual payer system, used by 160 out of 200 countries studied
  • A combination of above systems, which Don said describes the U.S. He said our country uses all four of the above models in various ways, like the Veteran’s Administration, Medicare, etc. and it makes for a very complicated, less efficient system.

Don showed a chart of cost comparisons among countries. In one example, the cost of health care is 18% of GDP in the U.S.; in Germany it is 11%.

He also gave an example of a “Best Practice” used by Taiwan. That country uses a medical card with a chip that contains all your medical records and can be taken from doctor to doctor or hospital.  He said in Taiwan, “they don’t think healthcare is amenable to a marketplace,” and it is more efficient and less costly to do medical records that way.

In discussing what should be done to address this huge issue, Don likened the problem to a broken bridge. “Who will design the replacement?” he asked. “I don’t have the answers, I’m just raising the questions.” He said Health Care for ALL Oregon is starting to work at the state level to implement change, and will push for a single Medicare-type system by 2020.

GUESTS LAST WEEK:

  •  Christy Cooke, daughter of Kathy George. Christy is interested in possible membership in our club.
  • Frank Engle, guest of President Elect Todd Engle
  • VeraLyn Klosterman, wife of our guest speaker

PAUL HARRIS AWARDS

PHF Multi Year Recipient Jan Winder 021517

Mike Caruso presents a Paul Harris pin to Jan Winder–a +7!.

Mike Caruso presented Paul Harris awards to Nicole McIntyre,  Immediate Past President Jim McMaster, Jan Winder and yours truly. These folks have committed to giving $1000 a year to the Rotary Foundation. Jim and Nicole are “+1’s,” meaning they completed their second year of giving. Jan is a “+7”–which means she has given a whopping amount, in excess of $8000!!  (I just completed my first year–think that makes me a “0!”) A great big thank you and “kudos” to all. The contributions do such good things in the world! PHF Recipient Nicole McIntyre 021517 PHF Recipient Jim McMaster 021517

 

Meeting Fun Fact: Deborah Cathers-Seymour is a bee-keeper. Who knew? She also has a new grand-daughter named Hazel.

NEPAL WATER PROJECT UPDATE

UnknownLaura Tilrico asked that we share some photos from the Nepal water project our club is supporting. “Here are progress photos of our global grant clean drinking water project,” said Laura. “It is amazing to see such progress.” The photos show some different stages of the construction of the reservoir.  The next segment will be the intake area in the village of Godamchour.Unknown-1

 

 

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REMINDER! THE FEBRUARY 22nd MEETING IS AT FRIENDSVIEW!!!!