Illness, money and our economy.
Over the last 50 years, the results of the war against disease have been disastrous for America. Most American’s are suffering from “healthcare” burdens. Their hard earned dollars have been poured into healthcare without end, leaving citizens and the country in a state of financial disaster.
Presidents have called our healthcare system wonderful, “a model for the world”. They were of course trying to get elected. For years, advocates of “healthcare” claimed that we were winning the “War Against Disease” while the nation was expending 100’s of millions of dollars on “healthcare”. Was this money spent on “Healthcare” or really on “Sickcare”?
The U. S. has run up an enormous tab outspending the rest of the world on “Healthcare”. Currently, we are #1 in the world for per capita healthcare expenditure, yet #44 in the world for longevity. Since we have begun the “War Against Disease”, we have spent trillions of dollars on a string of failed missions on individual diseases. To head down the road to health, U.S. leaders will first have to take a brutally honest look at real costs and the real utility of their massively excessive spending.
In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau listed active hospitals in the U.S. as totaling 7,569. With all these hospitals came a series of costly expenditures since the 1960’s and the full bill has yet to come. While embellishing American medicine, the “War on Disease” has acted as a production line for the creation of yet more “Healthcare” outposts throughout the world. If you were to begin the process of disentangling Americans from this world “illness” economy a vital financial empire would appear once again.
Without unjustified healthcare expenditures, expenses would immediately decline. If current U.S. healthcare were simply brought under rational “evidence based” control there would still be significant savings.
The very opposite is happening. Facing manpower demands on an overstretched Healthcare System the U.S. is planning to ramp up the size of its forces over the next several years. This expansion comes with a sure-to-rise price tag and the support of both Presidential candidates. Just attracting this many “Healthcare” providers will cost a small fortune. This year hospitals will spend millions on advertising alone to help meet their recruiting goals. On top of that they pay out millions in bonuses to recruits and this says nothing of how much it costs to train, equip and pay these “Healthcare professionals.
Capping, if not decreasing, the size of healthcare should be the foundation for new policy. This would, of course, be a major departure for the U.S, Healthcare System, based upon the notion that the solution to disease is simply spending more.
The cost of manning, maintaining, and regularly upgrading
healthcare facilities is already a significant financial burden for American
taxpayers. Getting out in today’s
depressed market would be the financially prudent thing to do.
If the United States ever acknowledged it wasted trillions of dollars fighting “The War Against Disease”, then we might not be in such dire financial straits today. And yet, despite the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression the U.S. continues to sink money into a “War Against Disease” with no end in sight. The result is a sheer waste in every sense of the word.
When Americans want to get serious about a long-term strategy that brings genuine financial and national security, they will look to real cost-cutting options in medicine. We need to stop squandering America’s resources on “Sickcare” and replace it with “True Healthcare” by having everyone take personal responsibility for their lives and their family’s lives so not to destroy our future. We need to re-educate the medical profession and the public that prevention is the only viable long-term solution for health. Only through these interventions will Americans enjoy a better quality and quantity of life!
Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.
“Evidence based” in the economy means free market. Health Care is anything but. End-of-Life expensive care is a little like unnecessary war. The benefits are not that great and on balance could be negative. How to calculate the opportunity cost for the Health, Drug, and Terror Wars?
Posted by: Dan | November 03, 2008 at 08:22 AM