To begin with, it took two weeks to construct this blog. After many revisions, I came to the conclusion I had to tread carefully with this topic as to not alienate politically minded individuals. In stating that, any successful healthcare reform has to start with educating ourselves concerning personal health, what is or isn’t a necessary emergency room visit, are the medications prescribed absolutely necessary, and can conservative care yield equal or better results?
What drives the cost of healthcare is extensive to say the least. The most fundamental cause, in my opinion, of high healthcare cost stems from the simple law of ‘supply and demand.’ One of the most prevalent ideas to control escalating healthcare costs is to socialize it, disperse the costs over the entire population. This will not contain the ‘supply and demand’ law, it will perpetuate it. This healthcare debate drives emotions like no other in our society and it is not my wish to deter from the purpose of this blog by directly addressing whether or not social medicine is the answer. I simply want us to take a step back, and begin to look at the broad spectrum of why costs are high.
As a healthcare professional, the following scenario addresses what I’m seeing as a vicious cycle perpetuating rising costs. It will crudely describe a life of poor health and the costs of countering it.
Fred is a 22 year old male, 60 pounds overweight, sedentary, with hypertension. The doctor is concerned about Fred’s current health status and places him on medication for hypertension and medications for lowering his cholesterol. In addition to Fred’s medication for blood pressure and high cholesterol, he is experiencing a great deal of joint pain. He now has a prescription for NSAIDS (Anti-inflammatory medication) and muscle relaxants. How much is Fred, Fred’s insurance, and/or Fred’s socialized medicine paying for his current health condition? Hmmm… Ponder that for a moment. Spring forward 25 years.
Fred is now 47 years old. He’s still taking hypertension and lipid medications with the occasional pain pill and muscle relaxant. However, his right knee has degenerated to point of needing replacement, but his type II diabetes complicates matters for the future surgery because of delayed healing. He’s now placed on medication to help control that disease process. After a time, he is moderately stable and has his knee replaced. He then has all the physical therapy to assist in the recovery. How much has been spent on Fred’s issues? Spring forward another 6 years.
Fred is now 53 years old. He cannot feel his feet due to the diabetic neuropathy and can’t walk well or lift due to a degenerated spine. He can no longer work. He collects unemployment and eventually is placed on disability. Now, Fred relies solely on his social medical payer for his medical needs. Again, what is the medical cost to counteract Fred’s declining disease processes? Remember, as his health declines medical costs increase.
Poor Fred… What a life…
Overall, how much money is being spent to maintain Fred’s existence, and is Fred happy? Fred requires healthcare, thus there is the ‘demand’. Society then creates the means to ‘supply’ Fred with healthcare. His health continues to decline, and he requires more healthcare, hence a vicious circle of events.
How much was spent on Fred’s healthcare over his life? A million? Two million? Every disease process described in Fred’s life is controllable via his lifestyle choices, our lifestyle choices.
What if we rewound Fred’s life back to a 22 year old Fred, and he made a conscious decision to eat right (fruits, veggies, and lean meats), exercise, and maintain a healthy lifestyle? Suddenly, he would find that he, his insurance, and/or his socialized medicine were not paying for all the interventions to countering his life the scenario described. He feels better. He enjoys life more. He spends his money on something more worth his time. He benefits the people around him by being a major contributor to his local economy. And, the law of ‘supply and demand’ becomes virtually nonexistant. The benefits of his healthy life, to say the least, are many.
Now, this scenario is a puzzle piece in a very high count puzzle paralleling the causes of high healthcare, and I am only addressing a small facet of the overall big picture. Fred’s life may not seem realistic, but it is much more common than we realize. We can control a great percentage of healthcare costs simply by not using it, hence limiting the law of ‘supply and demand.’
In conclusion, healthcare costs can be managed when we manage our own personal health. I cannot stress this enough, be educated about your personal health and what it takes to maintain it.
