U.S. Health Care: The Good News

            This week, I watched a PBS video called “U.S. Health Care: The Good News”.   This documentary visited multiple cities and health clinics with innovative practices that help cut the cost of health care spending.

            Dartmouth University started studying millions of health care billing records.    They published their finding in a report called the Dartmouth Atlas Project.  They studied bills from different towns across the nations.  They found huge differences in treatments and cots in different communities.  

            I think that health care is a right for all human beings.  Looking at countries across the globe, most governments have a universal health care for all their citizens.  The United States is one of the few, if not only, developed nation in the world that does not guarantee health coverage for its citizens.  I feel that it is the government’s responsibility to care for and protect its citizens.  The Declaration of Independence states that all Americans have the unalienable right to “life”.  This includes a right to health care to help preserve life.  In the preamble of the US Constitution it states it purpose to “promote the general welfare”.  Health care is a human right.  The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one’s family including…medical care”.  Many legal documents signed by our country and many countries around the world state that citizens should have a right to health care; the government should provide health care to everyone.

            In Grand Junction, Colorado, the health care system has an agreement with their physicians.  They have a system where they withhold a portion of a doctor’s payment.  The doctor’s willingly put money into the pool.  At the end of the year, the hospital evaluates the cost and quality measures.  These determine how much money the physician will get back or will not get back from the withheld pool.

            In Seattle, Washington, there is something called Group Health.  The doctor would spend a lot of time with their patients.  Each patient get at least 30 minutes of face time with their physician.  The patients are very welcomed with the medical staff.  The patients are encouraged to email the physician with any illness or health problems they’re having.  And almost instantly, they will get a response from a health care provider.  This system of health care actually saves money and lives.  By talking regularly or for a long period of time, physicians are able to help prevent illnesses from developing into anything serious.  This saved money by avoiding surgeries and hospital visits.

            In Everett Washington, there is a clinic, Everett Clinic, which uses a lot of modern technology to help cut health care costs.  Their main way of cutting costs is by eliminating unneeded, expensive procedures, and controlling blood transfusions.

            Usually, the doctor looks at the patient’s disease and suggests surgery.  And a surgeon who is viewed by the patient as the one who knows all should have the right decision.  At the Hitchcock Medical Center in Dartmouth allow the patients to make the decision for their treatment.  There is center for shared decision-making where the patient is educated on their treatment options and from there, they are able to make their treatment decision.

I do believe that the way medical care is practiced in the shown cities can be duplicated in the area I’m from and cities across the nation.  However, to obtain these health care systems big changes will have to be mad.  Not just decisions concerning physical changes, but people’s morals will have to be changed.  Doctors will have to be willing to take lower salaries in the name of successful patient outcomes.  This practice is doable.  Medical practices need to be willing to use new technology and new delivery models so they can spend more time with patients.  Doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies need to work together to keep track of costs and hold them down.  Doctors have to be willing to give their patients real voice in treatment decisions.  Big steps need to be taken in order to implement these health care practices nationally.  But yes, this way of medicine is possible to achieve.

Vaccine Wars

            This video definitely influenced me about the way I view vaccinations.  Before, I though of vaccinations just a routine thing.  The nurse would come into the doctor’s office, list off the vaccines I was due to get, and then she inject me with the vaccination.  Vaccines are medical marvels.  Vaccines ended the outbreak of the fatal disease polio.  And today, there are now SIXTEEN diseases preventable by vaccinations.  However, some people, specifically people in Ashen, Oregon, do not exactly see the benefits of vaccinations.  The parents, hesitant of vaccine side effects, choose not to vaccination their children.  This could possibly lead to an outbreak of a disease that hasn’t been seen in years.  There is a concern that a major outbreak of a fatal disease will come from the lack of immunization.  Many doctors and medical professionals have expressed their concern.  Although there are some side effects that come with the vaccination, I feel like the pros outweigh the cons.  There have only been some cases of people affected by vaccinations in detrimental ways.  But vaccinations do an amazing job at prevent deadly diseases.  I have always gotten the vaccinations that doctor recommended to me, now I have been influenced to make sure I get my vaccinations.

            Herd immunity is when the majority of a population becomes immune to a disease via vaccinations, the remaining small percentage of the population without vaccination become very unlikely to get the disease.  However, if the percentage of immunity in the population falls too low, outbreaks are very likely.  Herd immunity requires a large percentage of the population.  Nowadays, with backlash against vaccines, the percentage of the population needed for herd immunity might fall below the goal percentage and could cause an outbreak.

            Public health decisions usually only affect the person that makes the choice.  However, in the case of vaccinations, this public health choice affects others surrounding this person as well.  This is shown in herd immunity.  Although I strongly believe in vaccinations, I do not believe doctors or other health officials should be responsible for making the decision to vaccinate children.  I believe that the parents have the responsibility to make their children’s health decisions.  I think the doctors and health officials job is to show the parents the benefits of vaccinations and the harm not getting the vaccination.  Letting the government control vaccinations, there is then the question how far can the government go in controlling our health choices and will they even be considered choices anymore?  The parent is responsible for their children in all aspects, including their health choices.

            Children might not receive vaccinations because their parents choose not to get them vaccinated.  These parents begin to question why their children need these vaccinations for diseases that do not exist.  These parents never saw or experienced the diseases now preventable by vaccination.  There is also concern that autism in children can result from a vaccination.  Parents with that concern would not get their children vaccinated.  People also decide not to listen health officials because they financially benefit from people getting vaccines.

            I believe that we should lawfully require people to get a vaccine.  People are allowed to have their own opinion and choice concerning their own health.  However, I do believe we should increase the rates of vaccinations.  We should do this by implementing policies that require children in schools to get certain vaccines in order to attend. Also there should be requirements for children to get certain vaccines to participate in sports.  Sports and schools are where the majority of children are and it will allow a whole generation to become vaccinated.

Non-Smoking Wives of Heavy Smokers Have a Higher Risk of Lung Cancer: A Study From Japan

In Japan, a study was conducted following the lives of 91,510 non-smoking wives aged 40 and above for fourteen years.  Although these wives were non-smokers, their husbands were reported to be smokers.  Mortality rates of the wives were studied to see if there was any statistical evidence showing a correlation between the husbands’ smoking habits and the wives’ risk of lung cancer.  The study showed that the heavier the husband was smoking, raised the risk of the wife being diagnosed with lung cancer.  Interestingly enough, the study also showed that women in agricultural settings had higher rates of lung cancer than the women living in urban settings.  One explanation for this was that the couples in agricultural settings come more in contact with each other than those in urban settings.  The experiment also showed that there wasn’t a correlation between smoking and any other disease or cancers.  There were a few cases of asthma and emphysema, but not enough to be statically significant.

This study had many interesting components to it.  One being the result that only lung cancer among the wives was prevalent; no other cancers and diseases were statistically significant.  Although the experiment at hand was focusing on smoking and lung cancer, the researchers also looked into other habits of the husbands and how they affected their wives.  The drinking habits of the husbands did not seem to affect their wives’ health.  The thing I found most interesting about this article was the fact that direct-smokers and second-hand smokers almost have similar ratios of lung cancer prevalence.  The smoking husbands are putting their wives in as much risk of getting lung cancer as they are to themselves.  This study should show the smokers how much they’re putting their loves ones at risk even though these people have chosen not to smoke.  So even though these wives were not smoking, they are still paying the price of their husbands’ actions.

The study that was conducted was an observational study.  These studies are typically advantageous because they are cheap and they yield conclusive data.  The participants in the study provide their own cigarettes and already know the risks of smoking and choose to smoke. The data collected for the experiment was already done in the census, which allowed researchers to observe a large population.  All the researchers had to do was observe the population and record their findings.  The experiment in itself is fairly cheap, easy and proves to yield accurate results.

In my own opinion, I strongly believe that second-hand smoking is a cause of lung cancer.  The results from this study show that the wives with heavy smoking husbands have a higher risk of getting lung cancer.  The study also shows that the more men smoke, the more their wives are affected.  This shows a direct correlation between second-hand smoke and the risk of getting lung cancer.  The study collected data from all different regions across Japan; so there was no bias.  Variables were accounted for and fixed so the data showed no other factors that would skew the results.  Even after the fixation the results were clear: second-hand smoke is definitely a cause of lung cancer.

Vital Signs: Binge Drinking Among Women and High School Girls—United States 2011

            Binge drinking has become a tremendous problem among young women.  Not only are the percentages of women who binge drink high, the risks that come with binge drinking are very costly, physically, emotionally, and financially.  The CDC utilized two programs, BRFSS and YRBS, to collect data from a range of women.  Their results yield finding for alcohol consumption and binge drinking.  After recording the results, there showed a higher rate of alcohol consumption and binge drink in high school girls, specifically grades 11 and 12.  There were also high rates of alcohol consumption and binge drinking in women ages 18-24 and 25-34.  Women and high school girls who reported binge drinking often did it frequently and intensely, averaging 3.2 episodes a month with 6.4 drinks per episode.  The higher rates of binge drinking were found among non-Hispanic white females and typically in households with incomes greater that 75,000. 

            The problem of binge drinking among young women has now become a rising issue in the field of public health.  Alcohol use among these populations is estimated to have accounted for 23,000 deaths and 633,000 years of potential life lost.  Binge drinking accounts for more than half of these.  Binge drinking has potential to lead to an array of harmful, and sometimes fatal, diseases such as, liver disease, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and breast and other cancers.  A large problem in binge drinking in young women is the affect it has on their reproductive health.  Drinking sometimes makes women vulnerable and susceptible to unprotected sex.  This could lead to STIs, HIV, unintended pregnancies, and exposing the fetus to alcohol during the pregnancy.  These issues tremendously affect women’s health.  When these issues occur in the young populations who reported binge drinking, the consequences become more costly and detrimental to their health and, potentially, their lives. Therefore, making binge drinking a public health issue.

            Honestly, these results do not shock me; in fact, they were expected.  My age falls into a range where binge drinking has extremely high rates.  I experience first hand the pressures of drinking and binge drinking.  Media, television shows, movies mostly shed light on the “positives” of drinking.  Alcohol consumption is shown as fun and a good time.  This is what leads to the drinking among young women.  The age group 18-24 year olds are mostly college students who have no supervision and feel free to try new experiences like binge drinking.  In the high school population, there is desire to be older, and the models of older women they have are the college women partying and binge drinking regularly.  The results came back at rates I had expected.  There were some flaws in collecting the data, but, for the most part, the results are about where they should be if not lower than the actual statistic.

            A plan to reduce binge drinking in these populations is a very challenging task.  My plan to reduce binge drinking would to place limits on how many liquor stores there are in a given area.  Also increasing the price of alcohol will reduce the purchase of it among these populations who could be on a budget and can’t afford the higher prices.  I would also implement an educational problem displaying all the harms that come with binge drinking.  I feel these consequences, if displayed correctly, will be enough to scare some women and reduce their binge drinking habits.