The Biggest Key To Health Care Reform In The U.S. Is YOU!

I want you to look at the following list and then tell me what the title should be. Ready...

1) Heart Disease
2) Cancer
3) Stroke
4) Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases
5) Accidents
6) Diabetes
7) Alzheimer's Disease
8) Influenza & Pneumonia
9) Kidney Disease
10) Septicemia

Do you have a guess as to what this list stands for yet? Need some help? This is the final report of the leading causes of death in the U.S. for the year 2006 which was published in April of 2009 by the CDC.

According to the National Coalition On Health Care the U.S. spent a total of $2.4 trillion dollars on health care in 2007 which works out to be $7,900 per person and 17% of our total GDP. If nothing is done with our current system then these numbers are expected to reach a total of $4.3 trillion dollars by 2017 which would be equivalent to 20% of GDP. All of this while we currently have a little over 15% of the population with no health care coverage and many more millions under insured.

Ummm... HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!!

But you already knew that now didn't you. So what can we do about all this? We could argue back and forth like the politicians do. They quickly forget about people like my friend Kate - Health Care Reform Touches Home.

However, I truly believe that there is a better answer. I believe that an overwhelming majority of our health care expenditures come down to the many decisions that YOU and I make on an everyday basis. That's right! Our success or failure as a country to reduce costs in an effort to provide access to quality health care for all Americans is not determined by our government or politicians or even our doctors. It's determined by YOU and I! How is this you say?

In Part I below I will explain to you how the everyday choices of over 300,000,000 Americans has a tremendous impact on 7 of the top 10 leading causes of death from above excluding accidents, influenza & pneumonia, and septicemia. Your choices in diet, exercise habits, and lifestyle are the major determining factors of not only your own overall health care costs in these regards but also everybody else's too. And it is in these key areas where the majority of success can be obtained in providing long term health care reform in the U.S.

In Part II below I will discuss some key points that I believe need to be taken to correct the inadequacies of the structural and organizational components of our current health care system. And I would encourage you to write your federal representatives as I have done so already to voice your opinion and provide them with your solutions regarding health care reform. Here is a website for you to find their information - Contact Your Representative.

Part I

If everyone including you chooses to take a more responsible role in their own individual lives then we as a country can virtually eliminate 7 of the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. and substantially reduce overall health care costs. Here's how you and I can do this...

1. Diet - The vast majority of Americans have an extremely unhealthy diet. This is by far the most important area in my mind where we can make a difference. As Americans we eat foods that are much to high in fat, cholesterol, sodium, and many other unhealthy ingredients. This leads to heart disease, strokes, cancer, diabetes, and many more diseases that diminish our quality of life, empty our bank accounts, and ultimately lead to our cause of death. Here's how you can make some major improvements in your life with diet... Transition to a diet that includes only fruits, vegetables, whole grains, plant based proteins, and is low in fat. Remember to also add a vitamin B12 supplement in addition to this. To learn more I highly recommend that you read The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. You can also view these websites Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's site, Dr. John McDougall's site, Dr. Joel Fuhrman's site, Vegetarian Times and Shattering The Meat Myth.
2. Exercise - At least 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week is sufficient. Don't overdo it! Work at a pace that's comfortable for you. Of course you should always check with your physician to ensure you are healthy enough to start an exercise program.
   
3. Lifestyle Choices - Stop smoking and/or drinking excessively! And obviously illegal drugs are out of the question along with inappropriate use of prescription medications. Drinking one serving of red wine a day has been shown to be very heart healthy according to the Mayo Clinic. Find ways to reduce stress which include yoga, meditation, praying, etc. Get plenty of regular sleep - at least 8 hours a day.

Part II

Here are some specific reforms that need to be put in place in order to have a health care system in the U.S. that empowers us to succeed instead of encouraging us to fail as is the case with our current system.

1. Restructure the reimbursement system to reward health care providers and organizations for providing proactive medical care instead of reactive medical care. Preventative care needs to be the cornerstone of our health care reimbursement system.
2. Create an alternative public plan that anyone can buy into in order to provide competition to the unregulated capitalistic private health care insurance industry.
3. Prohibit any public or private plan from discriminating against pre-existing conditions.
4. Prohibit any public or private plan from making a profit on BASIC medical care. This is done all over the world and done very successfully. Making a profit as an insurance company on lifestyle procedures (face lifts, liposuction, etc.) would be permitted.
5. Prohibit any public or private plan from setting any annual or lifetime cap on medical benefits.
6. Allow patients to choose any doctor, hospital, or clinic they want.
7. Provide the necessary funding for 100% conversion to electronic medical records.
8. Reduce administrative costs by coming up with one single way that health care providers and insurance companies bill for services. Taiwan currently issues electronic cards (similar to a credit card) to all its citizens and this is what is used for all billing transactions. Their administrative costs are a little over 2% as opposed to over 20% in the U.S.
9. Invest heavily in diet and lifestyle public education. We've done this before with the stop smoking campaigns over the years and it can be done again with healthy diet and lifestyle education.
10. Consider subsidizing memberships for U.S. citizens to a gym or recreational facility.
11. Prohibit lobbying of any kind by any health care related industry in politics. The business done on K street needs to end for good!
12. Put a cap on the amount that can be awarded for malpractice lawsuits. Individuals and families should be compensated for gross negligence but receiving $10 or $20 million dollars instead of $1 million is not going to make that patient or family happier in the long run. And it only serves to increase costs for everyone due to pure GREED!

To learn more about the pros and cons of healthcare systems around the world watch this program - Sick Around The World. We can learn a lot from our worldly neighbors. We can also learn a lot from practicing preventative medicine. Please visit this website to learn more about that topic - Functional Medicine. To learn more about how the current unregulated capitalistic private insurers work in the U.S. watch this interview with a former Cigna executive - Wendell Potter interview.

In conclusion please realize that we are capable of so much more here in America and yet we settle for less. We have a healthcare system that needs some major reform but ultimately long term success is not dependent on any government program or private insurance company but rather OURSELVES. You and I need to make better everyday choices to reduce not only our own individual costs but the entire nation's cost in general. By making better decisions on our diet and lifestyle we'll also attain the added benefit of feeling better and living a longer life filled with years of positive activity instead of dreadful suffering. And if you're telling yourself that it's just too hard to break old habits then my advice is that any small, positive step forward is better than doing nothing at all.

Thank you for reading this post and feel free to email me at rxvettemaster@yahoo.com with any questions or concerns and I'll be happy to respond. Please share this with everybody you know to allow for an open and healthy discussion of real solutions to our many health care challenges.

Healthcare Reform Touches Home

The national debate over healthcare reform is hotter than ever right now. And as we all get passionately worked up about our own individual views on what's right and what's wrong we tend to forget what this cause is all about. We focus on our differences and forget about the people who this is affecting the most.  So allow me to share a story of a very close friend of mine that hopefully puts some perspective on it. The following is a letter that I wrote to both President Obama and various Florida House of Representative members and Senators.



Dear __________,

What if this was your daughter?

Kate Markwith is a 29 year old vibrant young woman with an incredible passion for infusing the best of mankindʼs joy and generosity into her fellow human beings. But it is her personal everyday battle with health and happiness which Iʼm going to share with you that will leave you scratching your head as to how such a radiant personality continues to flourish on an everyday basis. The important question to focus on is how will her story
affect the decisions you make regarding national healthcare reform? In other words, what if she was your daughter?

Kate has a chronic medical condition called Crohnʼs disease which is an autoimmune disease that affects the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It causes severe, debilitating pain and discomfort and there is no cure for it. She was diagnosed with this condition 21 years ago. She and her family have endured many personal and financial hardships due to this illness. Kate has gone through a total of 14 major surgeries to remove the lower half of her GI system including a portion of her ileum, her entire colon, and rectal stump. She now has an ileostomy as a result of this. Kate has also had approximately 200 minor procedures or surgeries in addition to fight this disease.

Her primary education years were not always spent in the classroom but often in the hospital. She didnʼt get to play any sports of any kind because of her illness. Family vacations and holiday gatherings were all too often cancelled or postponed due to her medical condition flaring up. And for the past 11 years Kate has been working extremely hard to attend college and achieve what many other twenty something year olds want - a college degree to help her compete in this very competitive world. However, Crohnʼs disease has remained her Goliath and a 2 year associateʼs degree in art that took 6 years to achieve is the extent of her well deserved accomplishments so far. She puts it best though with this quote, “I would liked to have finished college in a reasonable time but I appreciate the good things in life more now due to working harder for everything in my life.”

Kate and her familyʼs financial struggles over the past two decades are extraordinary in their own way. For the first 7 years of her illness Kate was lucky enough to have private medical insurance through her parentʼs plan. But this “safety net” of private insurance can be misleading in itself due to the many surgeries and hospitalizations that were required to treat her condition. The out of pocket medical expenses reached into the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for her and her family. Like many Americans her parents work hard for a modest middle class life but these medical expenses left both them and their daughter with very poor credit. Many of the bills went unpaid as they passed their 7 year statute of limitations with collections because the money simply wasnʼt there. It left her parents with no money left to help pay for any of their 3 daughterʼs college education and a credit history that nobody would want. It has left Kate with awful credit to the point where she is denied approval to live in any apartment complexes (even with roommates) without one of her parents cosigning as a guarantor. She has no credit cards and rarely ever gets offers in the mail from credit card companies.

When Kate turned 18 she was very close to reaching the maximum lifetime cap on medical expenses allowed by her parentʼs private medical insurance plan. The only option for medical coverage was now Floridaʼs Medicaid system since she couldnʼt afford a private plan and even if she could no private insurance company would accept her because of her medical condition. But the financial struggles donʼt stop there for Kate. Even with Medicaid and Social Security disability benefits her out of pocket expenses and previous medical debt has left her in financial ruin. Kate has monthly expenses of a couple hundred dollars just for ostomy supplies that she canʼt live without. These supplies are not covered by Medicaid. She works and goes to school when she can but as mentioned before long term stability in both these areas of her life are compromised by inevitable disease flare ups and hospital stays.

Kateʼs biggest health concern now is her teeth. Due to being on regular, long term courses of corticosteroid medications to treat her Crohnʼs disease she has developed osteoporosis. Osteoporosis has left her with fragile bones and her teeth are no exception to this. They are severely worn down and cause discomfort and pain while she eats. Unfortunately, Florida Medicaid provides no dental coverage so Kate has only been to a dentist twice in the past 11 years. On her latest visit, the dentist told her that she either needed crowns put on every single one of her teeth or a full set of dentures. Either solution will cost several thousands of dollars. I think it goes without saying that all Kate is left with to remedy the situation is hope and prayers.

I was curious as to what Kateʼs view on our current healthcare system is like here in the U.S. so I came up with a few questions for her that Iʼll share below.

Question #1 - Do you feel society owes individualʼs like yourself accessible and affordable access to healthcare insurance?
Kateʼs response, “Yes, everyone is entitled to good quality healthcare services and should not be discriminated against based on gender, race, social class, etc.”

Question #2 - What changes would you make to improve the healthcare system in the U.S.?
Kateʼs response, “Give everyone equal access to any physician they choose instead of there being a selective list of doctors that are covered by certain plans. Donʼt let the healthcare system cater to wealthier citizens. It should be an equal opportunity system. And simplify the healthcare system so patients, providers, and organizations all understand one set of rules.”

Question #3 - If you had the chance to ask one question to a member of Congress who completely opposes any kind of universal healthcare plan in the U.S. what would that question be?
Kateʼs response, “What if you werenʼt well off in life and you or a member of your family had to deal with a chronic disease? How would you do this?”

Question #4 - What would you like to say to President Obama regarding your personal story of Crohnʼs disease?
Kateʼs response, “My story is unique to me but not unique in the grand scheme of things. Everyone deserves a chance at being healthy. Without your health your ability to reach your full capabilities towards yourself and society are compromised.”

Iʼve known Kate for the past 8 years and weʼve grown very close in friendship with one another. In those eight years Iʼve never once heard her ever play the self pity card. Iʼve never heard her complain about how her chronic medical condition has ruined anything in her life. In fact, she has been nothing but an eternal optimist about what life holds for her. She doesnʼt let the physical and emotional scars of her past dominate her chance at living. And she continues to lean on her incredible faith in God and the righteousness of her fellow human beings to carry her through each day.

If youʼd like to reach out to Kate or myself then please look below for our contact information. And whatever you do please keep this question in the back of your mind as you head off to the many debates and tasks that await you regarding healthcare reform in America - What would you do if this was your daughter?

Respectfully,
Dustin


If after reading this blog post you feel compelled to help Kate please contact me and I will provide you with the information that you need. My email is rxvettemaster@yahoo.com.

To find out more about revamping our healthcare system read this - http://rxvette.blogspot.com/2009/06/biggest-key-to-health-care-reform-in-us.html