Welcome to Healthcare Restructure

" A voice for change in healthcare".

Finding ways to finance health care while providing for equitable access to care, will be the fundamental issues that will shape the country in the months to come. We currently spend over $1.2 TRILLION a year on healthcare costs.

Health Care Restructure is what America needs if it is to create a viable, affordable and accessible health care system. Health Care Reform is just talk. A sound bite. A term used by politicians who don't have a clear understanding of the complexity of our current health care structure.    Health care reform assumes a premise that our health care system is viable and will work if some changes are made. I beg to differ. Anyone who has had any contact with health care, whether as a user of its services or provider, can understand that the foundations upon which our current health care system is built on is flawed . To reform something which is flawed from the start will result in more of the same, and is no fix. \

Americas' healthcare problem is uniquely American, and as such solutions will require a unique approach.  Too often special interests' concerns have taken precedent over sound policy which keeps the interest of the country first. What has developed as a result of these political policies has been a main if not the main cause contributing to our current state of healthcare. The buck stops with government.

Managaed care, our health industry, insurance corporations and the medical field, all depend on and rely on regulations set forth by politicians and Washington. We are where we are exclusively out of legislation from policymakers. Any fix must begin in Washington.

 

A Open Letter To President Obama

           Dear Mr. President, as you are get ready to embark on the greatest journey imaginable, I write to offer support and request attention to our nations out of control health care. A health care system which has resulted from flawed, failed policies. At no time in our country's history has the medical community been as divided as it is now. We have different values, beliefs and schools of thought. Physicians and health providers, find ourselves having to serve and serving many masters each pulling us in different directions to suit their needs. The patient unfortunately, often becoming an after thought. Perhaps few physicians will admit this, but I believe the majority know exactly what I mean and share my views.

We find ourselves working with decreasing reimbursement from the health insurance industry, and managed care multinationals who have taken over and dominate the business of medicine. They in turn have not the interest or wellbeing of patients, but rather stock holders. On a yearly basis, trying to meet health care cost reductions set out by the Balanced Budget Act, Congress attempts to reduce and cut payments to physicians. We on the front lines continue to be under increasing pressure, providing more with less, performing at higher levels while being the first to feel the effects of our nations failed political policies.

Failed policies because while we are targeted with reductions, Congress and politicians who seemingly put their own interests first over the people, sign into law legislation that has given the health care industry in the form of Medicare Advantage Plans, a 12-19 % greater payment for the same service that we physicians receive from traditional Medicare.

As a result, as I go to work, I see in my community, HMO's that offer "social clubs" for their senior members. Medicare members are picked up, fed, play games, entertained and are offered free hairdos, manicures from the in house beauty shops. These non medical services offered as a result of these increased payments received. In essence, social services paid for, from limited health care dollars. And then it is we physicians who are the first to be targeted for cuts.

There is something terribly wrong with this policy, yet Washington continues to pass policy that benefits a few at the expense of us all.

I applaud your efforts and that of your advisers. I look forward with great anticipation in the hopes that you visit this issue and take action which will level the playing field and bring some semblance of parity. But this is just a start. You have a long road ahead which will be laced with obstacles, laid by the multi billion dollar health care industry and their equally funded lobby. Rest assured however, that while changes will come, health care restructure cannot come soon enough. 

 

 

The cost of health care. How we got here.

It is easy to put the blame  of the high cost of health care on any one thing. Costs are a conglomeration of multiple factors, the main one being the increasing numbers of people using health care resources. There has never been a time in history for example, with as many people 80  years or older, than the present. With the increased age however, the more associated or complicated the medical condition one suffers from or what we call co-morbid conditions, all of which increases the cost of medical care. Added to this, the ever increasing availability (and  expensive) medical technologies that unfortunately in many cases serve to prolong death instead of prolonging life.

With the advent of better use of medications, new drugs and therapies as well as with a better control and management of patients, many are now living longer more fulfilling lives with their medical conditions. During my medical residency for example, HIV was a death sentence, Today many live a long life thanks to the use of protease inhibitors and combination of drugs.

 

  

 

What we do...

American HealthcareProviding information related to healthcare issues:

  • American Healthcare Crisis
  • Healthcare Inaccessibility
  • Affordable Healthcare
  • Health Insurance Abuse
  • Possible Solutions to the Healthcare Crisis

May we find the strength to stop quietly accepting the system the divides, excludes and discriminates. Instead that we find a source of all that is just and true, that fortifies us with courage and integrity to draw each of us out of a numbnrss and collective amnesia . To act with a sincere passion for justice and strengthen us to be active participants in the fulfillment of that promised.

 

Click HERE to read our latest healthcare articles.