BROKEN HEALTH CARE, CAN IT BE FIXED?

Part I of II

By: Aron Neelie

Let's talk about health care and its basic problems. Let's talk about health care reform. Let's talk about how to "fix" health care and its reformation, by first discussing how it is broken.

Health care once upon a time was strictly up to the individual. It was up to the individual to be as healthy as possible, and to only go to the Doctor or call upon a Doctor when it was absolutely necessary.

It is no longer that way.

 People have enough money for gluttony, and lack of self-concern, and consequently, not enough money for today's current medical bills and practices which sky rocketed because of people's gluttony and lack of self concern.

Today, there are more abuses to the system than there are cures for the system. The abuses are prolific on all counts. Hospitals have had to change their practices, health insurance has had to change its practices and all for reasons of people and Doctors and Insurance companies and Hospital administrations taking advantage of the system and the loopholes.

Such an example is a hospital a few years back in Los Angeles that had to close its doors, due to too many "foreigners", "immigrants", "non-U.S.-citizens" flooding the emergency room for non-emergencies. Many immigrants are un-insured and would go to the emergency rooms for colds and flus which rightfully belong under a General or Internal Physicians care. So by them constantly using the emergency room, rather than going to a Dr., because they knew they could be turned away by the Doctor, they abused and over-taxed the system, henceforth shutting down the hospital.

Anther such example are a Surgeons performing surgeries under the guise of "necessity" - now how is it a necessity that a women have a tummy-tuck; or an HIV positive, jail in-mate needing a penile implant? These two examples are silly, but sickeningly true. And there are many more examples of such abuses, especially for those with "good insurance", such as 3d, color ultrasounds at the very end of a pregnant woman's third trimester.

Health care is broken because of the financial wants and everyone involved in the "value chain".

It begins with the Doctor's and the Hospital's administration and their "dog-and-pony-show" for funding and the Insurance companies lack of care and sole concern for their profit.

Everyone, unfortunately, wants to be rich or well-off; including Doctors. Now, even though they have taken an oath to help people, and some may actually think they are helping people, they are genuinely taking advantage of the "system" which in turn is taking advantage of those who are ultimately "paying into the system". And it should matter to each and every Doctor all of the procedure they are performing and all of the costs they are passing along to the payees of the system. I should also matter to the Doctors that because many of themselves and their colleagues are for want for "more" money that they have seriously injured the pocketbook of others along their way.

Additionally, because of many Doctor's decisions, which are by no means consistently and constantly based upon necessity, there is a grand tendency due to malpractice fears, to schedule and perform "every available test" to determine the patient's problem; even if it is not an illness. The Doctors' fear of lawsuits, have given rise to their common practice of over-examining; that way they can attest to the fact they did indeed "do everything possible"; but in the same vein, some Doctor's realize that when they have a patient with a serious and unknowing problem, that if they do less, they have an alibi to their possible lawsuit, of "I had no idea this was going on".

Both the aforementioned, wanting to be rich and fear of malpractice have given rise to poor "Doctoring", which in turn has led to even poor health care.

PART II IN NEXT MONTH'S ISSUE...

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites