Doctor’s Research Suggests Ways to Achieve Healthcare Reform
Health Care Meltdown: Confronting the Myths and Fixing Our Failing System, by Robert H. LeBow, MD, 2003, Alan C. Hood & Co, Chambersburg, Penn., 280 pp. $25.00
Health Care Meltdown begins by debunking 13 myths with solid data. A sampling of the surprising facts includes:
- 18,000 adults die each year in the United States because of lack of health insurance;
- the healthiest 20 percent of Americans spend only about $14 a year on health; profit margin of all U.S. corporations; and
- the pharmaceutical industry spends almost three times as much on marketing and administrative costs as it spends on research and development.
Those who doubt that the present system is broken need only recall their last patient. Author Robert H. LeBow, MD, illustrates through chilling examples just how frightful the healthcare system has become. There now is a paperwork nightmare that does not seem to improve with electronic communication. The complexity of the paperwork multiplies when the government pays the bill, yet at the same time the government assumes that physicians are all criminals who must be investigated for fraud and abuse.
Professional liability insurance premiums continue to increase and the number of suits filed multiplies because patients always expect a perfect result. Our society has created a huge monster that continues to be nourished by powerful financial interest groups like the pharmaceutical industry, the insurance companies, large employers, and some elements of the medical establishment because they know that any real solution could threaten their bottom lines.
This book offers hope for the 43 million people without health insurance in this country. A groundswell of grassroots support could bring about change. The author believes that healthcare for all is achievable and that it will require a single risk pool with a common benefit package.
A new system of healthcare that works would not necessarily cost more. Many economic studies actually show a savings with universal coverage. The most recent studies done as a part of the state health planning grants funded by the Health Resources Service Administration show an overall savings of more than 5 percent in some states with a single-payer plan. This type of system with one risk pool may be the only affordable solution.
It is worth noting that to be successful, any system must place an emphasis on prevention because prevention provides maximum bang for the buck. For example, every dollar spent on prenatal care can save $7 in the long run. Three hundred thousand people die each year from complications of obesity. Further, for every pack of cigarettes sold, the U.S. healthcare system spends $3.50 on medical care of smokers.
Neurosurgeons, who understand firsthand that something needs to be done about our healthcare system, will enjoy this book.
Gary Vander Ark, MD, is director of the Neusosurgery Residency Program at the University of Colorado and past president of the Colorado Medical Society. He is the 2001 recipient of the AANS Humanitarian Award.
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