The US ranks highest in obesity and outspends all other countries in the world annual per-capita expenditures according to The Commonwealth Fund Report, 2012. Public views in 2010 noted by the same report indicate that only 29% of American view the health care system as working well, and over 68% do not believe the current health care system is working (41% see a fundamental need for changes and 27% believe it needs to be completely rebuilt).
Symptoms are often caused by toxicity and inflammation. Suppression of symptoms can induce a more dysfunctional elimination pattern and create deeper disease states. We currently have a dominant medical system with a focus on and economic incentive for suppressing symptoms. The herd approach to medicine is not working and has created an epidemic of chronic degenerative disease.
Medical and scientific knowledge doubles every 3.5 years or less. (http://www.worldhealth.net/anti-aging-tips/1/knowledge-power/) The knowledge explosion opens doors of opportunity for our current medical system to adapt to the new insights and understanding of medical intervention. Providers have busy schedules making it difficult to stay abreast of a rapidly evolving field of medical knowledge. Incorporating changes into a practice is often challenging.
Economic politics profoundly impact the direction of both mainstream medical practice and individual lifestyle choices. Pseudoscience skews outcomes to support new drug sales is not designed to solve the growing problem of obesity as a symptom of chronic degenerative disease. The politics of fast food, toxins, genetic modification of food, addictive ingredients are all allowed to be marketed through powerful lobbying efforts
America can turn the health care crisis around. A start is being made by integrating western and alternative approaches, and combining the advantages of both systems to address these challenges.
It’s no secret that the health care system in America is broken. In fact, a doctor visit today includes an average of just less than seven minutes of actual face time with the physician. The most common result of these visits is prescriptions. That would be great if drugs actually fixed your problem; but they don’t, they simply treat symptoms of the core issue. Even worse, they often create more symptoms that lead to more drugs. It’s a vicious merry-go-round that’s almost impossible to get off.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics and the Center for Disease Control, the U.S. spends $2.6 trillion on health each year. That’s almost 18 percent of GDP. Most countries spend about 5-8 percent of GDP on health expenditures. If these trillions of dollars made us the healthiest country on earth, perhaps it would make sense to spend that kind of money, but we’re not.
The U.S. ranks the 33rd healthiest country in the world, right in between Czech Republic (32) and Bosnia (34), based on data from the World Health Organization compiled in the Bloomberg ratings,
The U.S. spends twice as much per capita as other countries. According to the National Institutes of Health, in 2011, per capita health spending in the U.S. was $8,608. The average per capita health spending among the three healthiest countries in the world (Singapore, Italy and Australia) was $3,887.
THE HIGH COST OF TREATING SYMPTOMS
Pharmaceutical drugs often turn off enzyme systems, overriding the body’s innate homeostasis. Our body is comprised of intricate systems. Doctors are trained to address the biological systems from a mechanical Newtonian chemistry and physics perspective. Any medical model that attempts to manage disease from the perspective of repairing a machine does not sufficiently address the awesome complexity of the human body. The model of functional medicine incorporates more advanced principles of quantum physics that restore enzyme systems that maintain the body’s natural balance.
Suppressing a symptom by writing a prescription takes only minutes. Addressing an underlying cause and restoring balance takes time. When was the last time you went to the doctor? Did you leave feeling like he or she took the time to truly understand what was going on with you?
There are many reasons why we spend so much and are seeing a dismal return on our investment. One is that we treat symptoms instead of root problems. Another is that we use expensive tests to diagnose disease and then prescribe even more costly treatments. Even worse, a lot of these tests and treatments aren’t even necessary.
Up to 30 percent of health care expenditures in the U.S. are unnecessary, according to a survey published in 2011 by Dartmouth College and the Congressional Budget Office. The cost adds up to almost a trillion dollars in avoidable X-rays, MRIs, EKGs, prescriptions and visits to specialists. There are cheaper, less invasive and (often times) more effective ways to deal with many common health problems. Doctors must often do these tests to avoid lawsuits. There is clearly room for legislative support in this area to help reduce costs.
MEDICINE IS BIG BUSINESS
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the pharmaceutical and health-care products industries, the healthcareindustrial complex spends more than three times what the militaryindustrial complex spends in Washington. According to one of a series of exhaustive studies done by the McKinsey & Co. Consulting firm, we spend more on health care than the ten biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Australia. On the other hand, the US spends almost 20% of the gross domestic product on health care, compared to about half that in most developed countries, yet results are no better and often worse than the outcomes in those countries.
Of the total $3.8 trillion that will be spent on health care, about 30% will be paid for by the federal government, driving the federal deficit.
As a country, our healthcare providers must be allowed freedom of speech and the ability to practice medicine free of persecution from government entities motivated from a place of political and economic gain. The medical arena is fraught with violations of the first amendment of the US constitution which provides for freedom of speech under the guise of protecting the public.
To the extent that alternative solutions and medical claims are marginalized, discredited, and actively blocked to protect financial interests. Our first amendment right is being violated when alternative medicine and trials of empirical solutions are prohibited from entering the mainstream medical discussion.
As the first amendment to the constitution states: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.’ This was adopted on December 15th, 1791 as one of the ten amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights.
The politicization of US health care is succinctly described by Harvard Business School Professor, Regina Herzlinger, in her book: Who Killed HealthCare? : America’s $2 Trillion Medical Problem – and the Consumer-Driven Cure. When it comes to health care, the real issue is power. The federal government has absconded with the nation’s entire healthcare system. This has been accomplished with and ‘end run’ around the constitution, the medical professionals, and the will of the consumers. This was seen in the form of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed in 2012. The ACA was not entirely without virtues. The United States is a wealthy nation, well able to make healthcare available to citizens who lack the resources to obtain medical help. Preexisting conditions should not bar an individual from gaining access to affordable healthcare. On the other hand, citizens should be able to choose their own doctor and the type of healthcare they prefer, while not being taxed excessively to covered everyone else.
The repercussions and damage to the system slowly emerged and are deeply disturbing in light of the fact the very members of congress who approved this legislation have exempted themselves and their staffs from its consequences. Groups and organizations who have access to the Whitehouse were also been granted exemption. (Herzlinger, 2007)
Trillions of dollars have been wasted on far less important matters than universal coverage for healthcare, and it is time to formulate both a free market based delivery system, as well as a medical system that supports preventative and catastrophic healthcare accessible to all. Patients and healthcare professionals must be allowed to actively participate in the solution. Insurance companies and lobbyists for Big Pharma have been allowed to control and regulate a self- serving agenda that has resulted in a broken bankrupt system that is anything but “healthcare”.
Hopefully, health care will evolve into a value driven system that allows patients to choose safer and less expensive medical interventions with value based outcomes. Doctors and other healthcare providers must be allowed to provide direct patient care without regulations from insurance companies that have outdated fee for service restrictions. In the end, these changes can reduce the cost of healthcare and solve the problem of spiraling costs.
