ARTICLE
We are barraged with stories in the medical literature and in the public press about the terrible state of our healthcare system, what poor outcomes we have, the inefficiencies in care, complaints about the electronic medical record, inflated costs, lives ruined by medical bankruptcy, and massive social inequities in terms of access and quality of care. Patients can’t get access to the care they need, interminable waits, medicines they can't afford, battles with insurance companies, frustrations with the system from every direction, and more. And the providers are just as frustrated. Dealing with prior authorizations, clunky electronic medical records, endless bureaucracy and regulations, we find our days filled more and more with so many things that we want to do less and less. So if everybody wants a better healthcare system, why can’t we get one? As far as I can tell, those desiring a better healthcare system in the U.S. is pretty much everyone. We let this happen to us, and by “we" I mean everybody. We let the healthcare system change, evolve, and erode. The system has become bloated, providers are stressed and overworked and overextended, working at home at night and on weekends, and not necessarily on things that actually help our patients. Part of the problem is that defensive medicine has made us all chase our tails, over-testing, over-ordering, practicing in fear. Has our litigious society forced everyone down an inflationary healthcare path from which there is no return? The healthcare landscape today is so much a business that it feels like we are nickel-and-dimed to death, to the detriment of ourselves and our patients. We need tort reform, standardized fair pricing, leveling of the salary landscape, and a system that does a better job of oversight to prevent rampant fraud. And somehow, we need buy-in from the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and the healthcare systems that have grown up into something as massive, unwieldy and unsustainable as the military-industrial complex of the 1950s. There are players and industries involved with healthcare who are making billions. We can’t blame them, the opportunities are there, we let them go there unchecked, and as private businesses in a capitalist society, their interests are those of their shareholders, to make a profit. Source: https://www.medpagetoday.com/patientcenteredmedicalhome/patientcenteredmedicalhome/80505