Health Care Efficiency and Patient's Fiscal Health

The Dartmouth Atlas Project was a research operation that was conducted to compare the costs of health care at first within the immediate area and grew into a nationwide project. The findings were quite different from what researchers expected: rate of illness and healthcare cost had very little correlation in the country. The problem with health care cost was "over-service," health care physicians taking it upon themselves to perform operations and tests that the patient never really asked for basically because the means to do so are present.

Health care, in today's day and age, should be a right given to every citizen. In a country such as this, it's a but striking to think that people would be unable to receive prenatal care because they lack health insurance or people opt for trips to the hospital rather than a doctor's office because they cannot afford the latter. The argument against universal healthcare is short term cost, but when you look at it, the system as it is now is very flawed. People who get sick only receive attention when it's gotten to the point where they need to go to the hospital, and their serious treatment is provided to them free of charge.

Grand Junction, Colorado is the example of how health care ought to operate. One of the prevailing issues with providing health care is the physician refusal to give service to someone who isn't on the correct health care plan for his pocket book. This system mandates that al physicians provide service whether they be on Medicare or Medicaid. Another issue for most personal physicians is just how little time you spend with him or her after spending all that time at the clinic. In Seattle, there is a system in which the physicians work their schedules around the patients, and there is a much more personal doctor - patient relationship. The patients will sit and talk with the doctor for long periods of time to discuss all of their health issues and aren't being rushed out of the office. In Everett, Washington, the problem of "over-service" is directly tackled via a program that essentially surveys a patient's symptoms and conditons to decide whether or not a certain test is recommended or not. If it isn't, physicians usually don't go forward with the test, though they can overrule the decision if they see fit. The decrease in scans an services of the like because the program have decreased the cost of healthcare.

The issue with these styles of healthcare that make me think that it's unlikely for them to catch on is the whole aspect of caring about your patient's pocketbook just as much as your own. It may sound pessimistic, but I really doubt that people will care enough about that to make massive changes to their practices. Sure, your doctor may prescribe the generic over the name brand drug to save you a few dollars, but completely overhauling their style of treatment is a lot to ask for. The whole fact that there are doctors that would refuse to treat patients who do not have proper insurance is a testament to the fact the the empathy found in the physicians in places like Grand Junction is not a universal idea.