This is the most important subject on the President’s agenda. The economic crisis is important, but health care is the problem that is affecting everyone’s lives…
Nowhere else in the world is so much money spent with such poor results.
On that point there is rare unanimity among Washington decision makers: The U.S. health system needs a major overhaul.
For more than a decade, researchers have documented the inequities, shortcomings, waste and even dangers in the hodgepodge of uncoordinated medical services that consume nearly one-fifth of the nation’s economy. Exorbitant medical bills thrust too many families into bankruptcy, hinder the global competitiveness of U.S. companies and threaten the government’s long-term solvency.
The problems with the American health care system can be summed up in two words…”For Profit”. Prior to the middle of the last century only a few doctors really got into health care with the thought of getting rich.
Hospitals were for the most part non-profit. Doctor’s office visit costs were within reach of almost every family. The labs and diagnostics areas of the hospitals were part of the hospital and staffed by hospital staff and billed on the hospital bill.
What has done in the American Health Care System is the “For Profit” mentality and the out sourcing of every area of a hospitals services. When what was once one entity covering the overhead of all services became a multitude with each being forced to pay individually for all normal office expenses from letterheads to billing staff, with each expected to show a profit, the world changed…And not for the better.
Add to this mix a Health Insurance Industry that is extremely effective at minimizing cost while maximizing profit, clearing the most costly individuals from the pool, effectively blocking people from receiving the care they need while maximizing the annoyance factor of dealing with the insurers customer service department and you have America’s existing system.
When you throw in American pride and a media system that is becoming more and more dependent on the pharmaceutical companies advertising dollars…And you end up with a dysfunctional system that ranks near the bottom in effectiveness when compared to other systems around the world, at the top in actual costs…And is “the best health care system in the world”. Just ask any American on the street, they’ll tell you nobdy else can beat American Heath Care…Even when it’s a lie. A lie they have been told all of their life…