Health Care Common Sense Solution

Much has been made about the need to reform healthcare, and this author will not dispute that the costs are increasingly becoming burdensome for Americans. But, there needs to be a common sense approach to the situation, not the drinking from the firehose methodology currently employed.

This is what I mean. The cost of healthcare is an extremely complex set of inputs that not only affect the total cost of healthcare, but affect each other. Throwing money at the problem, either through co-ops or government-run plan may not alleviate this burden (what you dont pay in premiums, you pay in taxes), and may even make things worse by hiding the true issues in healthcare. As this author stated before, its like putting a bandaid on a bleeding puncture chest wound without taking the time for exploratory surgery to find and fix possibly larger issues.

Unfortunately, our representatives in Washington dont see it that way. Apparently, they feel that if they throw enough money at the system, it will end up working.

It wont.

Here is the common sense solution: identify key, major inputs to the system, work on a smaller scale to fix those inputs, and determine how those changes affect the entire system. In other words, work on a manageable, measurable micro level rather than the macro level being tried now. We know why Washington will not do that. Its because it would not appease their respective special interest groups.

Here is a possible solution. Chronic disease are one of the largest costs in the total healthcare cost. The "sickness" of each affects all of us. As we are a healthier nation, the costs of chronic diseases will go down. Chronic disease, such as cardiovascular disease (heart and stroke) and diabetes are largely treatable and in most cases, preventable. Chronic diseases increase the costs of healthcare because they create a significant and prolonged burden on our healthcare system. Seven out of 10 Americans that die each year die of chronic illnesses.

The costs of chronic illness upon our healthcare system is measureable. The common sense solution would be to attempt to affect this micro input, measure the change, then adjust as necessary. Instead of spending trillions of our childrens' and grandchildrens' money, lets get to the street level of the issue.

Some facts provided courtesy of the CDC (www.cdc.gov)


Cost-Effectiveness of Prevention
For every $1 spent on water fluoridation, $38 is saved in dental restorative treatment costs.

Implementing proven clinical smoking cessation interventions would cost an estimated $2,587 for each year of life saved, the most cost-effective of all clinical preventative services.

For each $1 spent on the Safer Choice Program (a school-based HIV, other STD, and pregnancy prevention program), about $2.65 is saved on medical and social costs.

Every $1 spent on preconception care programs for women with diabetes, can reduce health costs by up to $5.19 by preventing costly complications in both mothers and babies.

Implementing the Arthritis Self-Help Course among 10,000 individuals with arthritis will yield a net savings of more than $2.5 million while simultaneously reducing pain by 18 percent among participants.

A mammogram every 2 years for women aged 50–69 costs only about $9,000 per year of life saved. This cost compares favorably with other widely used clinical preventive services.