{"id":5517,"date":"2013-03-11T16:02:03","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T21:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=5517"},"modified":"2021-09-06T12:00:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T17:00:52","slug":"a-blizzard-a-french-restaurant-and-the-future-of-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/11\/a-blizzard-a-french-restaurant-and-the-future-of-healthcare","title":{"rendered":"A Blizzard, A French Restaurant, and the Future of Healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Posted 03\/11\/\/2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d been one of the handful of pedestrians walking down Chicago\u2019s Halsted Street during our snowstorm a couple weeks ago, you might have glanced into the window of an otherwise deserted French restaurant, your attention held for a moment by a pair of geezers engaged in extremely animated conversation in the warm amber light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of them (me) was clearly on the defensive, sliding down into his chair disconsolately, occasionally bringing his outspread hand before his face as if to ward off blows. The other, hunched forward with a devilish grin, was animatedly enjoying himself. If you looked carefully, you saw him extracting and unfolding newspaper clippings, internet printouts, and handwritten notes from various locations in his coat, wallet, and shirt pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two were discussing healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or rather, I was learning about the future of healthcare from a longtime friend, an internist in his fifth decade of practice, as fiercely independent as any John Wayne or Clint Eastwood character (though the comparison stops there as he\u2019s 5\u20191\u201d and totally bald with thick Woody Allen glasses). My colleague enjoys regaling fellow physicians with bad news about the future of medicine even as his wine-stained evidence accumulates in a pile on the crisp linen before him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a good thing we had plenty of wine. And because we were the only customers all evening as the snow fell steadily outside, every once in a while our waiter joined the discussion. Everybody has a healthcare story to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that the Affordable Care Act is necessarily a bad thing,\u201d my old friend began, \u201cbut rather the way all of American healthcare has, in one fell swoop, been capitulated to the health insurance industry. The near future will be a series of sweetheart deals between the major insurers and the mega-medical centers that wipe out the small fry like the neighborhood hospitals. The far future will be \u2018Northwestern: a Division of Blue Cross\u2019 and \u2018Rush: A CIGNA Hospital.\u2019”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what he predicted we\u2019d be seeing during the next five years<\/b>:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n