- Joined
- Jul 4, 2005
- Messages
- 414
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- 3
The current American Healthcare system is riddled with problems.
Doctors seem to work increasingly long hours for decreasing pay and gratitude.
There are 40 million uninsured Americans. 30% of all healthcare expenditures are paid by 5% of the population.
The baby boomer generation will soon be retiring, requiring more healthcare.
Americans spend increasingly more on healthcare than any other first world nation, yet our average health is among the poorest.
The looming shortage of physicians, particularly those in primary care.
The rising cost of healthcare that outpaces inflation.
And there are still large gaps in healthcare, particularly among the minority and rural populations.
Most of us know this. We hear it time and time again in Pre-health societies, particularly so-called Progressive Pre-Health Student Organizations. But what I hear very little about solutions. How can we fix American healthcare?
1) "Nationalized Health Care" This is the most common answer that I've heard. But of course countries with this system have had problems. Think about Britain where doctors choose to only take the healthiest of patients and exclude others on the basis of family history, or the long waiting lines for surgical treatment.
First off, when talking about Nationalized Health Care, one of the biggest problems in modern American Healthcare are the huge administrative costs. That's partially why costs are increasing. Government is, well, known for large, ineffectual, administrative bureaucracies. Think about the DMV. Ore better yet, the 70 some odd plans for senior medicare. Could American government be stream-lined enough to handle this function?
Secondly, many other countries with single-payer plans have A) higher taxes (40-50%) and B) considerably smaller populations. This makes the single-payer system a question of logistics. Will Americans take to higher taxes? People in California practically revolted as they saw gas rise up a few cents. Can we create a good, stream-lined system to provide universal care to 250 million?
2) Alternatively, what about a Free Market approach? With increasing competition, prices in almost every other market goes down, performance improves and consumers get a better product.
For example, the car market. Once American cars dominated the market in the country. That market dominance is now greatly reduced by the presence of Japanese cars.
Most Americans are not mechanical engineers and don't have great detailed knowledge of how cars work or what makes cars the best. In a similar respect, most Americans are not health workers and don't know that much about how the body works.
Yet, through the existence of idependent agencies (such as Consumer Reports), consumers can easily learn which type of car is best for them. So, why can't there be a Hyundai for health field? Something cheap, reliable and gets the job done.
Currently, its hard to find out how good your doctor is unless he tells you he performed blank procedures of blank-thousand patients. In the same respect, you never hear of people switching healthcare plans like do banks, cell phone plans etc. Perhaps a true free market is what is needed?
Thoughts?
Doctors seem to work increasingly long hours for decreasing pay and gratitude.
There are 40 million uninsured Americans. 30% of all healthcare expenditures are paid by 5% of the population.
The baby boomer generation will soon be retiring, requiring more healthcare.
Americans spend increasingly more on healthcare than any other first world nation, yet our average health is among the poorest.
The looming shortage of physicians, particularly those in primary care.
The rising cost of healthcare that outpaces inflation.
And there are still large gaps in healthcare, particularly among the minority and rural populations.
Most of us know this. We hear it time and time again in Pre-health societies, particularly so-called Progressive Pre-Health Student Organizations. But what I hear very little about solutions. How can we fix American healthcare?
1) "Nationalized Health Care" This is the most common answer that I've heard. But of course countries with this system have had problems. Think about Britain where doctors choose to only take the healthiest of patients and exclude others on the basis of family history, or the long waiting lines for surgical treatment.
First off, when talking about Nationalized Health Care, one of the biggest problems in modern American Healthcare are the huge administrative costs. That's partially why costs are increasing. Government is, well, known for large, ineffectual, administrative bureaucracies. Think about the DMV. Ore better yet, the 70 some odd plans for senior medicare. Could American government be stream-lined enough to handle this function?
Secondly, many other countries with single-payer plans have A) higher taxes (40-50%) and B) considerably smaller populations. This makes the single-payer system a question of logistics. Will Americans take to higher taxes? People in California practically revolted as they saw gas rise up a few cents. Can we create a good, stream-lined system to provide universal care to 250 million?
2) Alternatively, what about a Free Market approach? With increasing competition, prices in almost every other market goes down, performance improves and consumers get a better product.
For example, the car market. Once American cars dominated the market in the country. That market dominance is now greatly reduced by the presence of Japanese cars.
Most Americans are not mechanical engineers and don't have great detailed knowledge of how cars work or what makes cars the best. In a similar respect, most Americans are not health workers and don't know that much about how the body works.
Yet, through the existence of idependent agencies (such as Consumer Reports), consumers can easily learn which type of car is best for them. So, why can't there be a Hyundai for health field? Something cheap, reliable and gets the job done.
Currently, its hard to find out how good your doctor is unless he tells you he performed blank procedures of blank-thousand patients. In the same respect, you never hear of people switching healthcare plans like do banks, cell phone plans etc. Perhaps a true free market is what is needed?
Thoughts?
