Get the broken medical delivery system off my aching back!

Health Care reform is in the news again. This is one topic that we all need to sit up and pay attention to. There is nothing more important than our health, and there is no doubt that our current medical delivery system is broken. As I write this, I am right in the middle of it, and I can report from direct personal experience that it is, indeed, a mess.

I have a herniated disc in my lower back, and I am in excruciating pain. Even with a specialist MD’s request, it took nearly a month for my insurance company to approve of an MRI needed to accurately diagnose the origin of the problem. And that was with me making daily phone calls being as squeaky a wheel as I could be. I actually had to file an appeal and a grievance to get it done. Even then, no one from the insurance company had the decency to call me. I got a phone call from the MRI center informing me that the procedure had finally been approved.

My insurance company wanted to treat my condition with pain medications. Here’s the thing folks, what insurance and pharmaceutical companies and even some doctors don’t tell you is that pain meds are bad. Pain is good. Pain is your body telling you, “Uh-oh, something’s wrong. Stop, don’t do that!” Cover up pain with medications, and you can do your body more damage. Maybe even permanent damage. My insurance company knows that, but prescriptions are a lot cheaper than surgery. There isn’t a single insurance provider that doesn’t put profit ahead of proper care. That’s a bad thing.

Pain is a symptom. Properly prescribed, pain medications help a patient get relief from the pain until the underlying cause of the pain is corrected. My insurance company was happy to dope me up and send me on my way regardless of the underlying cause. That’s wrong.

Here’s the problem facing our law makers. If the new plan is to be any good at all, there is no way it is going to be a win-win. Actually, considering all the parties involved in this mess, it is more accurate to say that there is no way the new plan is going to be a win-win-win-win-win…. You get my drift. For us to have affordable, universal, and efficient health care, somebody is going to have to take a few hits. What is important is that the plan be a win-win for two groups: the people, and the doctors who treat us.

The doctors are on the front lines. They are the ones whose training and experience we count on to help us. Nevertheless, they have taken a lot of heat for making too much money. As far as I’m concerned, they should make as much money as they can. In consideration of the hard work, discipline, determination, and perseverance pre-meds and interns must develop on their journey to become doctors, they deserve to be well rewarded. Not to mention the brain power, the time (measured in years), and the debt most incur along the way. The system is tough for a reason. It is supposed to weed out the unfit. Is it perfect? No. There are bad doctors. That’s where our responsibility comes in.

As consumers of health care, we Americans are too trusting. We still cling to the “Marcus Welby” image of doctors, and gladly swallow whatever they give us. We forget that they are working in a competitive environment just like any other service provider. We forget that doctors themselves are now completely immersed in a complicated and sometimes irrational web of compensation for their services. More than likely, we blindly and gladly accept whatever health insurance plan our employer has to offer. We are fools to believe that our employer didn’t weigh costs in the determination of which insurance plan to offer. Good companies care about their employees. They offer them good health insurance plans. Not all of us work for good companies. We need to remind ourselves of the number one consumer rule; caveat emptor – buyer beware. As Americans we tend to scrutinize our cell phone and cable TV plans with more vigor than we do the bona fides of the doctor into whose hands we may be placing our very lives. The same goes for the insurance company we are going to rely on to “protect” us from the high costs of medical care.

That brings me to another point. As Americans, we are the fattest and sickest population on the planet. We really should be ashamed of ourselves. After all, if we have control over anything, it what we choose to shove into our mouths. If we Americans were to fully accept responsibility for our own health, and get into shape, we could shrink the health care industry by 50%! Okay, I’ll admit, that’s just a wild guess, but you get my point. More than any grandiose plan, losing a few pounds and exercising our hearts would shrink health care costs tremendously, and we don’t need the government to do a damn thing. To start, it’s as easy as getting off our butts and taking a walk…at lunch, after diner, whenever.

Of course, the truth is, the whole medical-industrial complex doesn’t want that to happen. They stand to loose billions! And of course, that means they will have less money to contribute to their favorite politician’s re-election campaign.

One last component of health care reform needs to be addressed as well. Until we make it as difficult to become a bad attorney as it is to be a bad doctor, frivolous law suits will continue to drive health care costs up. Ask any doctor, and they’ll tell you, that’s where this whole mess started in the first place. Of course, there are so many frivolous lawsuits due to the potential of huge settlements or awards. If the government is hell bent on socializing something in addition to the auto and banking industries, perhaps they should start with the legal aspects of healthcare by requiring arbitration and prescribing set amounts for damages. Of course, these is little chance of that happening due to the fact that most of our elected officials are attorneys themselves.

So, the best way to partake of the health care system, as it is today or will be in the future, is to avoid it as much as possible. Enjoy your walk.