extremely interesting and thought a good idea to pass along.
August 02, 2009 - 09:30 AM
Health Care From A Doctor's Perspective
by Rosa Fini, M.D. - Connecticut Coordinator
our medical system can easily be considered one of the best in the world.
That doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement. The health care industry is about 16% of our GNP-- it is expensive. But it is also readily available--no one ever gets refused medical care. Physicians, hospitals, clinics will all give care to the best of their ability--without regard to their own compensation or the patient's legality of residency. Unpaid statements are generally written off by the practitioners and hospitals, rarely getting any acknowledgement from the public. Neither does the massive personal debt that an individual takes on in order to become trained as a physician. Yet, medical liability is generally viewed with compassion for the patient, rarely discussed as frivolous, or as a convenient cash cow. All this drives the cost of health care upwards.
Additionally, as a nation we have sections of our population that do indeed strive for health maintenance. But our health care system delivers services to cure disease with certain specialties--pediatrics, OB/GYN, sports medicine-- having a strong basis of preventative medical care. The rest is up to the patient. Poor habits and unhealthy lifestyles may lend a certain independence to one's aura, but it sure is a conundrum of sorts!
Our health care delivery is complex, and the need for cost containment is apparent. But, it should not deter medical advances in technology and pharmaceuticals, and cannot be accomplished without some attention to tort reform. And certainly, the public should be able to look at the inefficient agencies that are currently at work via Medicare, Medicaid, and the Massachusetts health care system, to know that government programs bread inefficiency and corruption. The last thing our country needs is to get more government agencies so that more decisions about health become politicized. We need only to look at other countries efforts to know that such systems become beacons for lobbying groups which are not interested in the public's health!
It seems to me that emphasizing the positive choices individuals can make--instead of searching for innovative taxation schemes--and getting back to "doing what's right" would go a big way in stemming spiraling health care costs.
That doesn't mean that there isn't room for improvement. The health care industry is about 16% of our GNP-- it is expensive. But it is also readily available--no one ever gets refused medical care. Physicians, hospitals, clinics will all give care to the best of their ability--without regard to their own compensation or the patient's legality of residency. Unpaid statements are generally written off by the practitioners and hospitals, rarely getting any acknowledgement from the public. Neither does the massive personal debt that an individual takes on in order to become trained as a physician. Yet, medical liability is generally viewed with compassion for the patient, rarely discussed as frivolous, or as a convenient cash cow. All this drives the cost of health care upwards.
Additionally, as a nation we have sections of our population that do indeed strive for health maintenance. But our health care system delivers services to cure disease with certain specialties--pediatrics, OB/GYN, sports medicine-- having a strong basis of preventative medical care. The rest is up to the patient. Poor habits and unhealthy lifestyles may lend a certain independence to one's aura, but it sure is a conundrum of sorts!
Our health care delivery is complex, and the need for cost containment is apparent. But, it should not deter medical advances in technology and pharmaceuticals, and cannot be accomplished without some attention to tort reform. And certainly, the public should be able to look at the inefficient agencies that are currently at work via Medicare, Medicaid, and the Massachusetts health care system, to know that government programs bread inefficiency and corruption. The last thing our country needs is to get more government agencies so that more decisions about health become politicized. We need only to look at other countries efforts to know that such systems become beacons for lobbying groups which are not interested in the public's health!
It seems to me that emphasizing the positive choices individuals can make--instead of searching for innovative taxation schemes--and getting back to "doing what's right" would go a big way in stemming spiraling health care costs.
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