Health care reform
I saw an article last week from Reuters (unfortunately I lost the link) about reforming health care in the U. S.. A couple of points stood out to me:
1) Dr. Julie Gerberding - the director of the CDC was quoted as saying “If we are seriously thinking about building a health system, then we need to be training professionals in a collegial and collaborative manner.”. It was explained that she thinks that the way doctors, nurses, veterinarians, pharmacists and dentists are educated needs to be changed - that they need to start their educations all together to “to foster cooperation and a sense of common mission”. I agree but think they should add eye doctors to that list too. Vision is a vital part of a healthy person as any other function or part of the body. I never understood why teeth and eyes were somehow separated from the rest of our bodies when getting health care or insurance.
2) She also said that the “system is focused on treating disease and on end-of-life care, with little attention paid to preventing disease and helping people lead healthier lives.”. That’s bothered me for a long time too. How frequently have you had a doctor talk to you about what you can do to be as healthy as possible? I’ve never had a doctor initiate a discussion like that. And have you ever tried asking a doctor questions about nutrition or fitness? They don’t seem to know a lot about it. Maybe that’s not what they are trained for and can’t be expected to know everything - but then our health insurance needs to include visits to professionals who can help us with nutrition and fitness. Diet and exercise are the two most important things a person can control to stay healthy and yet our doctors don’t know enough about them to help people do the right thing. We’re left on our own and most people don’t know enough themselves or can’t afford to pay a nutritionist or personal trainer to help them.
What do you think?
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3 Responses to 'Health care reform'
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on August 7th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I’m an assistant editor for a medical magazine called MDNG and recently wrote a Web Exclusive (”Healthcare Reform: What Next?”) about healthcare reform based on the article you are referring to. What I found to be the most interesting aspect of the article is how the number of healthcare professionals and nurses continue to decline as each year passes. I also reviewed the healthcare stances of four of the major 2008 presidential candidates. To read the article in detail visit http://www.mdng.com
on August 14th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I read that about there not being enough nurses too! But they can’t let more nurses into nursing programs because there is no one to teach them. What a mess!
Thanks for stopping by!
on September 27th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Thank you for blogging about Health Care Reform! The growing number of uninsured, now at over 47 million, the high cost of insurance and the release of the 2008 presidential candidates’ health care plans have brought the topic of health care reform to national headlines and prime time news.
But what about the individual stories of American citizens facing a health care crises today? How do they navigate the broken health care system? At Outrageous Times.org we talk about the issues concerning individuals and small businesses. In addition to reporting on pending legislation and the record profits of pharmaceutical and insurance companies, we address the real life stories — emergency room care, mental health issues, drug abuse, obesity, preexisting conditions and children’s health. By letting our voices be heard-together we can find common sense solutions to reduce health care costs and increase access to quality health care for all.
Outrageous Times is our monthly grass roots newspaper, dedicated to health care reform now and is distributed to over 20.0000 readers in Mercer County, WV and Tazewell County, VA. The web site http://www.OutrageousTimes.org is a both a local and national health care resource. We would like to invite you and your readers to submit your stories, experiences, observations and opinions to OutrageousTimes.org. Comments posted on OutrageousTimes.org are often reprinted in the Outrageous Times.
Thanks in advance for your contributing your knowledge to OutrageousTimes.org.
Sincerely,
Brenda Turner
Publisher
Outrageous Times