America's Health Care, WHO, World Health Organization, Universal Health Care,
News From Zinger:
We are looking into moving the blog from its current hosting site to a new hosting company. We have had numerous problems with the creation capabilities of the current hosting company and blogging software, so we are working on moving the blog to Wordpress. We plan for this to be accomplished with little disruption to our subscribers and complete in March. In the meantime, ZingerKing will publish on a reduced and more sporadic schedule. Subscribers receive each new article when published.
________________________________________________________________________
Monday February 22, 2010
Today's
Zinger:
Who Said It?
The Morning Briefing:
It’s the best of care; it’s the worst of care. That’s how America’s health care system can be summed up. The quality of care in America seems to be bimodal, meaning there appears to be two different systems working simultaneously. America has the best cancer care in the world. America has the best medical technology in the world. According to the World Health Organization, America has a infant mortality rate and life expectancy rate that is average at best. In some places in the United States, infant mortality and life expectancy borders on third world performance. How can this happen?
The Discussion:
The key to improving America’s health care is not a simple fix. There must be two sides of this equation that are managed together. First, making health care accessible to its citizens and secondly making it more affordable. All of this must be done while ensuring that we don’t stifle medical innovation.
The House of Representatives and the Senate have proposed health care reform that addresses the first part of the equation, improved coverage and access. This will surely improve the metrics that the World Health Organization relies on to rate how a country performs in meeting its citizens health care needs.
However, America already has the highest cost per capita in health care. With 17% of our Gross Domestic Product going to health care, how can we expand coverage and lower costs?
The answer is not the insurance companies. The answer is not price fixing by the government (after all that got us in this mess with price fixing on Medicare). The answer is the incentives of patients and the providers of health care. As Zinger has written in the past, our society looks to medicine to fix their problems.
Few people have taken responsibility for their own health. If they are overweight they say give me a pill. If they have diabetes, give me a pill. If I have high cholesterol, give me a pill. If I have high blood pressure, give me a pill. If I have a heart attack, give me a pacemaker or stent or bypass.
So, America grows fatter, our arteries clog, our sugars increase and our health care costs skyrocket. When we should be eating less and more healthy food, and where we should be walking, instead we sit, we ride in our cars, sit in front of our TV’s and computers and we eat fast food. Then we get sick and say, give me a pill.
Compare American’s lack of responsibility for their health care with a delivery system that is based on individual providers making a profit for services rendered and no transparency of pricing and you have a system that is broken. Zinger has written often about the problems with the provider network and pricing.
In the February 18, 2010 edition of The Economist, there is an article that lays out the challenges of fixing health care and a comparison of alternatives and country spend. I highly recommend the article. It is one of the best articles that I have ever read on the subject of health care and health insurance. THE ECONOMIST. The article will appear in a separate window.
The Conclusion:
To improve America’s standing in health care, we must expand coverage to all of our citizens, but this must be done without jeopardizing quality and access. Other countries that have expanded care or used government run programs have experienced many problems with access and cost. If America is to be successful at bridging the two worlds of health care that exists today, we must aggressively go after costs. Without full coverage and an aggressive rethinking of our health delivery system which focuses on patient outcomes, patient and provider incentives any health care reform will end in higher costs or lower care. Either way it will be a failure.
Who Said It?
“I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”
Barack Obama at a Virginia Health Care Rally.
(I'll bet you were hoping it was about Congress)
Today's ZingerToon:
Shameless Request For Support:
ZingerKing operates without advertising or government funding (obviously). The purpose is to inform and educate its readers about economic and political issues that affect our lives.
Help ZingerKing grow. Have you Zinged someone lately? Please forward a link to ZingerKing to a friend, family member or neighbor. If you enjoy reading the Zinger please subscribe (see the subscribe box at the top of the article in the purple side band). Subscribers receive the"Morning Briefing" when published with a link to the full article.Periodic alerts are sent to subscribers only with important updates and insights into critical issues. Your email address will not sold to others and will not be shared.
Write To Us:
You can comment on any article by clicking on the comment button at the bottom of each article or you can write to us at ZK@ZingerKing.com
Categories: Legislation, Social Issues, Healthcare
Tags: Universal Health Care World Health Organization WHO America's Health Care
Comments