Since Congress is messing around with inserting itself even more into your life but seems to be in a bit of a pause mode, let's take over. Having just had the humiliation of my annual physical and surviving a bit of a scare with a bad test reading, the subject of health care is fresh in my mind and my checkbook.
But first some facts on healthcare from a recent article in AARP magazine—health care costs have risen 2% faster per year than other costs for the last thirty years, in 2007 the total health care cost for the nation was $2.3 trillion or more than we spend on food, and for that we don't exactly lead the world in being healthy having lower life expectancies than Canada, Japan and all but one Western European country.
So why is the stuff so expensive and, more importantly, what can we, you and me, do about it? Factors include inefficient insurance companies, so inefficient that nearly a third of our health costs are insurance company administrative costs. Another factor is a bad patient mix—20% of the patients eat up 80% of the services with most attention going to those individuals with diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Sounds like more time should be spent on lifestyle changes than just going to the doctor.
But the biggest culprit is unnecessary care with this whopper—of the $2.3 trillion spent on health care last year, $500 to $700 million was spent on treatments, tests, and hospital time spent that did not improve the health of anyone one bit. The overspending is the result of doctors covering themselves, greedy malpractice lawyers, resultant expensive malpractice insurance, and, surprisingly, patients demanding a test or procedure that they read about in the Sunday paper or saw on ER.
So what? Articles like this leave me cold until we get to the What Can I Do About It Part? And the answers are:
1) Coordinate your own care—make sure all your doctors have your records so each one knows what the other one is doing.
2) Find out the difference a test or procedure makes. Ask what the test is about and what they are hoping to learn.
3) Weigh the benefits and risks of each test.
But first some facts on healthcare from a recent article in AARP magazine—health care costs have risen 2% faster per year than other costs for the last thirty years, in 2007 the total health care cost for the nation was $2.3 trillion or more than we spend on food, and for that we don't exactly lead the world in being healthy having lower life expectancies than Canada, Japan and all but one Western European country.
So why is the stuff so expensive and, more importantly, what can we, you and me, do about it? Factors include inefficient insurance companies, so inefficient that nearly a third of our health costs are insurance company administrative costs. Another factor is a bad patient mix—20% of the patients eat up 80% of the services with most attention going to those individuals with diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Sounds like more time should be spent on lifestyle changes than just going to the doctor.
But the biggest culprit is unnecessary care with this whopper—of the $2.3 trillion spent on health care last year, $500 to $700 million was spent on treatments, tests, and hospital time spent that did not improve the health of anyone one bit. The overspending is the result of doctors covering themselves, greedy malpractice lawyers, resultant expensive malpractice insurance, and, surprisingly, patients demanding a test or procedure that they read about in the Sunday paper or saw on ER.
So what? Articles like this leave me cold until we get to the What Can I Do About It Part? And the answers are:
1) Coordinate your own care—make sure all your doctors have your records so each one knows what the other one is doing.
2) Find out the difference a test or procedure makes. Ask what the test is about and what they are hoping to learn.
3) Weigh the benefits and risks of each test.
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