America Has a Sick Care Not a Health Care System

[Stephen C Schimpff]

We Americans like to pride ourselves as having the best healthcare system the world but unfortunately that is not the case. We have a medical care system, not a healthcare system. We give lip service to prevention and spend only about 3% of our $2 trillion in medical expenditures on public health. By many measures we do not rate favorably compared to many of the other industrialized societies. As citizens we have behaviors that are driving more and more illness, illnesses that at chronic, complex, lifelong and life shortening. That $2 trillion is by far more than other nations spend per capita and it is seriously and adversely affecting businesses, government and each of us. Meanwhile, we may be pleased with our doctor but not the delivery system as a whole. Quality is subpar, preventable errors are rampant and some 47 million of us are without insurance access to medical care – the only such industrialized country. Health care reform is now a topic of great interest but politicians and media focus on the access issues predominantly, cost issues somewhat and the quality, safety and prevention/ public health needs only rarely.
Let’s take a closer look at what we have today. The current system of care focuses on “disease and pestilence.” It is a disease oriented system and certainly not a health management system nor a patient-oriented system. Mostly, this is due to a reimbursement methodology that under-rates the generalists and tilts toward those that do procedures. That is not what we need; what we need is a payment system that rewards the generalist for working in rural or socio-economically deprived areas, for taking the time to listen to the patient, for being attuned to prevention and wellness management. Today, that is just not where we are in America. So we need a change to a system that is focused on disease prevention, health promotion and with ready access to primary care and providers. Then, when necessary, access to specialists, hospitals, rehabilitation and all of the other requirements for good medical care when disease or injury does occur.

[Dr.Neelesh Bhandari]

Health care reform is a hot topic these days. What is health care reform? The President, Congress and people like you are talking about it. The simple answer is well, there is no simple answer.
Most Americans i know are not even sure if Healthcare is a fundamental human right?! So talking about "Health care for all" seems too far fetched for them.The argument i hear commonly says that only taxpayers should be given health care assistance and the 46 million or so people without Health insurance can go to Hell ! It seems like a weeding out plan for poverty. " You don't have money to buy insurance? Too bad, go sit there and die".

All of us shall soon have to come to the conclusion that health rights are equal to Right to life and inability to pay for it cannot be a hurdle. The real problem is not the poor, it is the absurdly rising COST of health care!

A few ways to reduce healthcare costs include

• More Use of Technology
• Empower people with More information
• Payment to care providers to be based on Quality rather than the number of investigations performed. ( This is very basic actually)
• Promote healthier Lifestyle.

Related Articles- -Why American healthcare is so expensive? (neeleshbhandari.blogspot.com) -Healthcare and emerging technologies (neeleshbhandari.blogspot.com)
-Better E.M.Rs to attain "Health Rights for All". (neeleshbhandari.blogspot.com)

[Lance M.]

links

http://www.HealthLibrarian.net

http://lacal.net/blog/

http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Prescription-Disruptive-Solution-Health/product-reviews/0071592083/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R1X1EBZ9LD5C85

[Lance M.]

Stephen,
Excellent points.
Here are some resources to consider on this topic.



Also, I some great points in the recent book, Innovator's Prescription, about the economics of generalists and specialists.


Lance Manning