Fixing Health Care

This post is a reference to a very interesting CNN movie we recently watched entitled Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare.

The problems this documentary highlights have been escalating since the 1970's, throughout several Presidencies, and is now a national epidemic regardless of politics.

According to the documentary, the average doctor isn't interested in helping the patient solve the cause of the health problem but instead, making money off a procedure that the patient may not need. 

I don't know first-hand of any doctor doing this, but I do know that I believe in healing yourself through healthy eating and moderate exercise. 

The highlights of the documentary are :
- Poor attention by health care providers towards the lifestyles of patients in regard to the cause of their ailment
- Inexpensive unhealthy fast food that is readily available everywhere
- The culture in the health care profession toward prescribing procedures which generate revenue vs. solving the patients' actual problem.  (smoking, drinking, high sodium intake, lack of exercise, etc.)
- Over-prescribed pain medications and lack of alternative pain reduction methods such as acupuncture
- The negative effects of stress and the positive effects of stress reduction

The documentary states that if our culture doesn't change, the average US citizen will be obese by 2030. 



2 comments:

dianne said...

So the obesity issue is a result of neglect / apathy / greed on the part of the physician?? If that's true, what will government healthcare do differently to prevent that? I fail to see where individual choices are not responsible for this epidemic, and how government might turn it around. And, frankly, have you glanced at your sleeper mate lately??

Ed said...

Dianne -

"So the obesity issue is a result of neglect / apathy / greed on the part of the physician??"

According to the documentary, people are receiving care for ailments that could have been avoided if the doctors cared more about the patient, by offering preventative care, rather than fixing them for profit when they get to the point of needing a procedure.  So yes, neglect and apathy on the part of a doctor at the onset of a health crisis often creates a situation that could have been avoided.  But it costs money to provide that care, and that's why it's not done.  

"If that's true, what will government healthcare do differently to prevent that? I fail to see where individual choices are not responsible for this epidemic, and how government might turn it around."

Government health care (not sure what you mean by that because it's not available to everyone) is not the subject of the documentary, so I'm unclear as to what your question means.  But health education, which should be generously offered through the medical community, could contribute to people having necessary information which may help them make better individual choices.  

"And, frankly, have you glanced at your sleeper mate lately??"

Yeah, I look at her every day.  She's beautiful.  What's your point?