Deepak Chopra, MD - San Francisco Chronicle: Why Health-Care Reform Won’t Reform Health Care
Like most people, I was encouraged and energized by President Obama’s stirring speech to Congress last week. With rare candor, he told the truth about the three C’s of reform: costs, coverage, and character. The last C was the most emotionally charged. Staring lawmakers and citizens in the eye, the President essentially said, “Is America a society that squanders $900 billion on a dishonest war but refuses to spend the same amount to give its citizens affordable health care?” Because of the massive counter-efforts by lobbyists and the resistance of the right wing, we’re holding our breaths on the answer to that question.
But let’s say the light prevails and the Democrats deliver a bill that gives insurance access to millions of previously uninsured Americans. As great as that victory would be, health care won’t be reformed. Isolated voices like Andrew Weil, (writing at Huffington Post and in his book, Why Our Health Matters ), and Dean Ornish, (writing as the medical editor at huffingtonpost.com and in his book, The Spectrum ), and former Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano are telling us why.
Here are the basic points that aren’t being addressed:
1. Prevention, the key to future health, isn’t being followed enough. That’s why Americans are getting more obese and sedentary every year. That’s why sugary drinks are now the single largest source of calories in the average diet. Alcohol and tobacco still account for 35% of all medical expenditures. Leading causes of bad health — obesity, heart disease, and type II diabetes — could be rolled back by sensible prevention that people simply aren’t following.
2. Supply and demand for doctor care is upside down. Patients aren’t demanding the bulk of the $700 billion in unnecessary tests and procedures performed every year in this country. Doctors are creating the demand to cover their backs and increase their income. Even conscientious doctors who put the patient first are caught in lockstep habit, calling for unnecessary tests because that’s what doctors do in this country.
3. Without a public option, there’s no real incentive for insurance companies to lower their costs. The free market isn’t free when the consumer is presented with non-competitive insurance plans that basically aim at corporate profit and when Wall Street dictates how corporations must be run in order to survive.
4. To borrow a phrase from Sec. Califano, we’ve become a “sick-care system” that puts all its efforts in developing newer drugs and offering more surgery once a person is ill. Doctors are not trained to keep people healthy. They are also strongly tempted to perform needless procedures that do not extend life span, such as hysterectomies, lower back surgery, heart bypass, and balloon angioplasty.
5. We are addicted to the sick-care system, and no money is being allocated in any of the reform bills in Congress to breaking this addiction. Massive public education was successful, over a long period of time, in getting people to quit smoking. Now we need the same massive public education to get them to adopt prevention. Will doctors, insurance companies, and big pharma do the job for us? Well, did big tobacco do the job of ending smoking? Without government action, the private sector will push drugs and surgery because prevention doesn’t show up as profit on their bottom line.
I regret having to walk in the shadow this way. Pres. Obama brought a good deal of light to the whole muddled issue of health-care reform. He spoke truth and balanced it with political realism. He chastised the political reactionaries who want to kill reform by using lies, fear, and misinformation. We’re better off for having heard the speech. But costs won’t go down and Americans won’t be healthier until the five points listed above are dealt with. Right now, health-care reform has been couched in terms of economics first and morality second, with little thought to what should really come first: turning sickness into wellness.
Posted in the San Francisco Chronicle
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I totally agree. I think President Obama has prevention there in his agenda somewhere and feels as you do but just didn’t get to it during that speech. So important for young people to know this now.
I understand all that has been said in this article, but we have to keep visualizing it working, and each and every one of us who believes in it will give it energy to happen. I love the approach of Eastern and Western attitude. Don’t the Asian doctors get paid when patients are well and have to work for nothing when they get sick. That is the attitude. There has been such a pattern of our own doing wanting a pill to cure all the things we have brought upon ourselves due to bad choices. It is time to get real and take responsibility and get the big business into a bit of conscience work. We are all connected and the human condition is not something we can hide from.
When my doctor gives me a pill and it makes me nauceous and I ask what are the side effects and he says, “I don’t know, I don’t study that.” It scares me. Why are we not all on electronic records so no need of duplicate tests? We are flying by the seat of our pants and when the health bill is passed I hope it can keep us all honest and willing to be responsible for our own health. And our children’s. Also.
I feel much more informed after reading this article and I do see that there are many limitations to our success initially. BUT, I still believe that something is better than nothing. We must begin the initiation of a system. We can always modify and improve that system as flaws become apparent. But, to do nothing is tantamount to admitting defeat and accepting the status quo. Wouldn’t the Republican and the Right be happy with that choice?
Prevention, guaranteed insurability, requirement to buy insurance, and measuring healthcare outcomes are the keys to improving health and affordable care. I’m out of step with most of my peers in my insurance industry, but I think guaranteed insurability (i.e., eliminating cherry-picking by insurers) is feasible if everyone is required to buy insurance. We should also provide financial incentives for individual to improve their health by having insurance pay for well-care physician visits, nutrition counseling, exercise program memberships, weight-loss programs, smoking cessation, etc. Invest in good health! Also, outcomes and healthcare cost-effectiveness should be measured and publicized. Physicians should be put in charge of our reform efforts, not politicians and insurance execs.
As long as there are still billions of dollars to be made by subverting and abusing true medicine, and selling people as much (or more) than they can buy – I can’t see anything changing.
Obama may be a fresh thinker, but the shadow government behind every president are not.
Micheal Moore speaks a lot about this in “Sicko” . Doctors in France are encouraged to get their patients healthy and their is a bonus if they do. America is odd to me. There is beauty as well don’t get me wrong I just think the argument that there is no money is gone after this George Bush’s rediculously expensive war that accomplished nothing except to make him wealthier. In Canada we have similar challenges even with universal health care. They are eliminated hundreds of acute care beds in hospitals and moving those patients to community based assisted living facilities which is good if you think about it because if you don’t need to be in hospital why should you be but community based assisted living facilities here in Alberta are not equipped to handle these new residents. There is a shortage of well trained staff. We have to start caring which is not as easy as one might think. Peace brothers and sisters. Lets hope we figure it out before it’s to late.
I completely agree with this specific article. Reform
will never be reform until we get into real wellness
and prevention. Yes, economics definitely takes
priority over morality. That’s the biggest and most
unfortunate problem that we continuously face.
We need to focus on the solutions (instead) of
the problems, until it is finally solved. Yes. We
certainly need more public involvement. More
people are currently seeking alternative healing,
which I think is good. Many people are frustrated
with conventional medical practices understandably.
Author Diana Lynn Neiderhiser
I am so lucky to be an American living in France.
Nearly all my health needs are covered by the national insurance plan, and the care is excellent.
Comparing costs, medicines and treatments here are one-fourth the average prices in the U.S.!
It is shameful that America ranks #37 in the world for its quality of health care, and is the only developed nation in the West that does not have a universal health care program!
Joan, you are lucky to live in France? as an American? Seriously? Wow, I feel you should stay there by all means…and quit calling yourself an American would ya?
And Joseph…Michael Moore loses credibility by opening his mouth and walking in the door..how could anyone take him seriously while he is weighing in at 300lbs and ranting about how “WE” should pay for his medical bills.
I believe we should promote prevention and do it now…but for crying out loud let’s quit acting like we are such a bad country because we don’t give away free health care. This country is great because we have freedom of choice!
Choose to get a job with great benefits, choose to quit smoking, choose to educate yourself about a healthy lifestyle and quite whining about it being your countries fault! It’s your fault you are fat, unhealthy and don’t take the time to realize abortion causes breast cancer!!
Figure it out and STOP blaming Republicans and acting like France is wonderful. I think we all know it’s NOT or we’d all live there.
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