Healthcare Reform IS the Problem

Our healthcare (HC) and healthcare financing ( HCF) systems are not sustainable. To think about why that is, find a picture of a rainbow (or draw your own). There are seven bands of color. Label your rainbow from the bottom to the top: Soul/Mind/Body/Wellness/Primary Care/Secondary Care/Tertiary Care (healthcare from specialists in a large hospital after referral from primary or secondary care). See also: Has The Projected Cost Of Health Care Reform Changed?   At this moment, there are 324,414, 852 people in the U.S. Most believe that we are made up of those three bottom elements: spirit, mind and body. The center band of the rainbow is wellness – an ideal for any HC system. The three upper bands define the delivery systems of HC in our country today. The flaws in the HC and HCF model displayed are simple – our current system has at its core a focus of “sickness,” not the ideal of “wellness.” Our system was built on a focus on the body. Yet you can get nearly universal agreement from doctors that much of illness originates in the head, and most will agree that a “believer” supported by a prayer community gets better results. Our care giver systems are intertwined with HCF and superimposed on “we the people,” not fully integrated with us as individuals. We go to the doctor. Our world of specialists is defined by organs du jour. Our care is explained to us in the vernacular of medicine, not language we understand. When care doesn’t work, we are sent to a different specialty. Finally, our demographics are killing us. Diabetes, obesity, sedentary lifestyles, a victim mentality and a sense of entitlement are limiting our future. The heaviest users of care are spending other people’s money for the treatment! And, while our systems have become very good at delaying death, they are less effective at extending the quality of life. (Don’t believe me? Go visit a nursing home every day for a month.) See also: What Trump Means for Healthcare Reform   Yet healthcare reform is based on the same flawed thinking got us into this mess. America and her people are genius – when they work together for good. Need evidence? We’ve already walked on the moon. We have the money, the need and the motivation to save us all – now we must just find a way to do it. What can we do? What should we do? What do you suggest? Somebody out there – outside of the special interests – has the answer for the common interest or an idea that we the people can use to bring health/wellness to our HC and HCF systems. Marcus Welby, MD is dead. We aren’t. Help!