Preamble
Preamble
Repairing the healthcare system.
This blog is about Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE’s studied view for repairing the health care system
There is been much written daily about the defects in the health care system. All stakeholders have blamed for the severe distortion in today’s healthcare system.
Unfortunately few have asked practicing physicians what they think the problem is. Neither has anyone asked the practicing physician what an acceptable solution is.
Persons not affected by the distortions in the health care system pay little attention to the broken system. Fortunately 80% of the population is not sick and are not in need of an effective and functional system. People not immediately affected by any system do not pay attention the defects in systems. The healthcare system is vital to every citizen both in the short term or long term.
Our broken health care system can not be ignored any longer. Our personal health and the health of our citizens is the most precious asset we have as individuals, and vital to the country’s success and well being in the future.
In my view, we are going through a process similar to the slow boiling a frog. We are noticing the rise in temperature little by little, but are too lethargic to take action and jump out of the pot. The effort is much too difficult.
However, we must take action now!! Soon, we will all be cooked.
What is the solution ?
In a consumer driven economic environment for most goods and services, the only way to get us out of this hot pot is for the consumer understand the structural defects in the broken healthcare system and then act. Someone must outline an effective and easy plan of action that involves all the stakeholders and aligns the incentives of all the stakeholders.
In reality, all of the stakeholders are to blame for the distortions in the system. They need to be answerable to the consumer. The consumer (patients) can exert power only after understanding the structural defects in the system.
The goal of this blog is to explain reasons for the defects, as well as the potential solutions. The solutions I will propose, in my view, will make ultimately fix the system.
Presently most of the stakeholders’ incentives are misaligned. The proposed solutions are aimed at aligning all the stakeholders’ incentives. All previous solutions have served to misalign incentives even further, in my view, resulting in our present dysfunctional system. The previous adjustments have resulted in a system that is much too expensive, has much too much waste, is inefficient, and almost unworkable. The result is that all of the stakeholders are very stressed and unhappy.
Over the next weeks or months, I will outline the problems and the solutions.