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We have to make it profitable to help patients get healthy
Old 01-23-2008, 04:30 PM   #1
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We have to make it profitable to help patients get healthy

Slightly old, yet interesting article about the US Healthcare System as this MD responds to Michael Moore's "Sicko".

Do his numbers sound correct to the MD's on the forum?

Our healthcare system itself is the leading cause of death overall, followed by heart disease and cancer!

If our healthcare system is responsible for more than 700,000 deaths a year from medical errors, hospital infections, bed sores, surgical errors, drug reactions, and more, which lead to an extra $250 billion in costs, do we want more people to be exposed to this type of care?

Other excerpts:

You see, the healthcare industry and the food industry profit from us being sick and fat. All the incentives are backwards.

The American doctor gets paid thousands of dollars for doing angioplasties and stent procedures and maybe 30 dollars for talking to someone about their cholesterol. Though doctors are generally well meaning, well-intentioned people, the healthcare system appeals to their dark side.
Do more procedures, provide more invasive care, and get paid more -- EVEN if it ultimately does not benefit the patient.

In American healthcare, the outcome of that care is mostly ignored -- namely, the health of the patient!

Promoting and treating sickness should not generate more profit. Creating health should.

You can watch his video on the right of the page if you don't want to read the whole transcript.

Sicko Part I - Why Michael Moore is flat out wrong about healthcare...
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Old 01-23-2008, 06:57 PM   #2
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There are many things that motivate the healthcare system and it depends on how the business is set up-in the case of the healthcare organization I work for, it is a firm fixed price setup, so prevention is the best mechanism to maximize the 'profits.' Now a flip side to this is that this could also lead to an inhibition to provide complex and expensive healthcare. I know that is not a fact for the organization in which I work. In fact, a healthy lifestyle and 'wellness' in encouraged and programs are offered to provide guidance towards those aims.

I personally don't go to movies to learn the truth but to be entertained. I've found movies and movie directors tend to exercise artistic license to the point of seriously stretching the truth. Additionally, anecdotes are just one data point. One needs to have a set of data points, n, and a large enough one at that to be able to possibly predict future behavior, assuming one can properly analyze the results and come up with a good enough model.
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Old 01-23-2008, 07:16 PM   #3
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Not sure if you followed the link at the bottom, but these excerpts are not from the movie, but an MD responding to why the movie was wrong and he is giving his view as a doctor.
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