What is a good health care plan?
A health plan can improve our health, is available and affordable to everyone, which is good. Medical care in the United States is not the best in the world. This is far from optimal. The World Health Organization rated the United States' health results as only 37 points, the same as Serbia. Compared with other developed countries in the world, we die faster, our health is not high, and the infant mortality rate and the incidence of chronic diseases are higher. However, despite the poor report card, the United States spends more on health care per capita than any other country in the world. But we cannot get a return from the money spent.
Americans believe that they are entitled to good medical care, but medical care is a disaster in this country. How serious is the health of the United States? The incidence of cancer is rising. 8% of Americans have diabetes. One in five Americans suffers from arthritis. Americans die of bronchitis, asthma, and emphysema more frequently than people in the other six major countries. Obesity is an indicator of future health problems and a disaster.
How much does health care cost?
Healthcare costs include money paid for medical insurance, prescription drugs, hospitals, doctors, and high-tech tests and machines. The average prescription cost is $70. The daily cost of the hospital is as high as $1,700. The cost of a routine delivery in the hospital is US$8,000. Each year, the total cost of medical care accounts for one-sixth of the GDP. However, today, medical insurance for a family of four costs more than $10,000 per year. This is the income of full-time workers who earn the minimum wage in a year.How to fix health care in the US Why is health care so expensive and Where did the money go?
Why is healthcare so expensive? Medical expenses are increasing rapidly. And the cost of the medical insurance plan is out of control. Have ever ask why most people did not have any health insurance before 1960?Today, most people get health care plans through their employers. Employers bear a large part of medical expenses. Except for co-payments, people will not pay for medical expenses out of pocket. People with medical insurance feel that as long as they can afford the co-payment, it is as if medical care is almost free. Patients with medical insurance do not need to know the cost of surgery. Because they don't pay directly, they only ask for the best. People have no incentive to reduce medical expenses. When patients need treatment or immediate pain relief, they are unwilling to lower the price. Finally, medical care is so expensive because patients use drugs as a panacea for unhealthy lifestyles.
How to solve Healthcare in the U.S. U.S. Healthcare is a Profitable Business
So we asked, why is health care so expensive? The current medical system is entirely based on profit. The medical system includes for-profit hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical technology, and medical insurance companies. The goal of profit can interfere with good health care and make it more expensive. The United States is the only country in the world without a national health care system.Who Benefits from the American Healthcare System?
Profit incentives affect all areas of medical care. Health care is big business. Pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and HMOs determine the medical services and costs we receive.- Large pharmaceutical companies are very profitable businesses. Their biggest expenditure is advertising and marketing, not research and development. Allow drug companies to directly promote drugs to consumers who are not qualified to evaluate them. The advertisement encourages you to try a new medicine, just like bubble gum. Almost no other country in the world allows drug advertising.
- Drug companies and equipment companies will provide remuneration for medical research to prove their latest products. Almighty dollars bought a lot of rubbish research.
- Medical education focuses on prescribing medicine for each patient. The system encourages doctors to prescribe overdose. As a doctor said to a patient: "If you don't want a prescription, why are you here?"
- Due to the profit motive of health insurance companies, many people usually refuse to accept health insurance because of their health conditions. In addition, people with health insurance are unfairly refused treatment due to unnecessary or experimental treatment.
- Powerful new medical technology does not reduce medical costs because it is overused and abused.
- Doctors who rely on drug companies for information about new drugs have been misrepresented and given insufficient information.
- Each doctor’s medical malpractice insurance costs will increase medical expenses. For many doctors, medical malpractice insurance is their biggest expense. Doctors ordered unnecessary diagnostic tests and scans to protect themselves from the threat of medical malpractice.
How to Repair Healthcare in the U.S. Requires Repairs in the Healthcare System
- Medical expenses are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy.
- The annual income of a doctor who becomes a specialist is five times that of a family doctor. Therefore, we have a large number of experts and lack of family doctors and general practitioners.
- There is a shortage of general practitioners and nurses.
- The patients are not satisfied with their medical treatment.
- Doctors are dissatisfied with their profession, because HMO and insurance companies will decide which treatments to use and how much time to spend on patient visits.
- Every doctor’s office has an employee whose full-time job is to submit paperwork to insurance companies and the government and try to charge them.
- Many people cannot get medical insurance. Insurance plans will not accept them, or they cannot afford the cost of the plan.
- The health care system ignores preventive medicine and rewards disease management.
- Since employers bear the main cost of medical insurance, products and business services are more expensive and less competitive in the global market.
- Employees cannot change jobs because they are not eligible for the new medical insurance plan.
- Unemployed workers do not have medical insurance and cannot afford Cobra or personal medical plans.
How to solve Medical Problems in the U.S.
Most people believe that if more people can afford health insurance and more people are eligible for health insurance, we will solve the US medical crisis. In the short term, healthcare reform will alleviate some of these problems. But the requirements of the solution are more than that.In the long run, it will be new paradigms and new ways of thinking that will restore healthcare and save the healthcare system in the United States. Doctors know that many diseases and chronic diseases can be prevented. But the medical system focuses on managing disease rather than preventing disease. We need well-trained medical professionals to emphasize preventive medicine and a healthy lifestyle, which is the best way to achieve health. We need to educate people about how to take care of their health and motivate them to choose a healthy lifestyle. It starts with healthy eating, exercise, stress management and lifestyle choices. We need to learn that health is our personal responsibility. We should learn how to protect and improve health through good choices every day, choose a healthy diet, avoid smoking and be healthy. People forget that they can do more for their own health than what the entire medical system can do. Preventing diseases is in your own hands. Health is a personal responsibility