America’s Healthcare in a Crisis
American healthcare suffers from the prevalence of litigation. Medical tourism offers patients enormous cost savings.
The same surgical procedure done abroad can be as low as one-tenth of the price in the U.S. Since potential litigation is almost non-existent, this accounts for the difference.
The outrageous cost of drugs is astronomical because the possibility of litigation has been included in the price.
Some physicians in America order far more tests than they do in other countries because of litigation fears.
Any efforts made by congress to control all healthcare costs must include a cap on malpractice and adverse drug effect settlements. There must be arbitration in lieu of litigation.
Constant drug development with escalating costs is a known issue.
The resistance to antibiotics is the pharmaceutical industry’s best friend. As soon as a new antibiotic becomes available, drug representatives generously give samples to doctors.
This new drug should be used sparingly and only for specific drug-resistant infections. This kind of drug overuse must be controlled.
Advertising for non-prescription drugs constantly reinforces the notion that the only answer to any discomfort is a drug.
Through the widespread advertisement, Americans unthinkingly take non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for everything.
They fail to realize they could suffer from potentially serious side effects. We need to ban drug advertising.
American physicians typically order more tests than are necessary.
Finding what are the most unproductive tests and establishing national guidelines for when to use them could help bring down costs.
For centuries, doctors have been taught to begin with a thorough history and physical examination followed by tests to finally arrive at the final diagnosis based on the total information gathered.
All illness begins with some dysfunction in the host that causes him or her to succumb to the disease.
The goal should be to restore the patient’s weakened function to regain health.
Familiarity with this approach among primary care physicians could not only bring down healthcare costs but also enhance physician satisfaction with work.
In the past decade, the insurance industry has begun to recognize that some forms of complementary care are far less expensive treatments than surgery and are adding them to its covered benefits.
It is time for government-sponsored insurance to awaken to this fact.
The shortage of primary care doctors has led patients to overuse costlier facilities such as emergency rooms and hospitals.
One of the main reasons for physicians’ disenchantment with primary care is that compensation is low when compared with specialty careers.
