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.