A New Plan For Healthcare Reform
We need to address the following topics to implement effective healthcare reform in the US.
- Access to primary care
- Misunderstanding health insurance
- Role of the government
- Public Plan
- Private Health Insurance Plans
- Education of the Public
Access to Primary Care is the Answer to Healthcare Reform
The healthcare problems in the US are caused by the lack of access many Americans have to primary care physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. This creates problems on many levels. The US falls below other countries in the treatment of chronic illness. People use the emergency room as their only form of healthcare. This raises the cost of healthcare for everyone. The costs are distributed over the people that do pay by higher costs of services and health insurance rates.
Lack of access to primary care causes:
- Use of emergency rooms for non emergency healthcare such as urinary tract infections, minor injuries and upper respiratory infections
- Chronic conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis related conditions and asthma do not get treated
- Lack of treatment leads to health situations with much higher costs
- Many persons needing treatment, when treated, cannot pay and the costs are then passed on to persons, insurance companies and the government as increased costs
- Hospitals bear the burden of treating people which do not need to be in the hospital or might not have needed to be there if they had received ongoing primary care
- Chronic health conditions do not receive sufficient care or sporadic care
- People do not go to the doctor when they should for fear of the costs
- The healthcare system becomes clogged
I believe that healthcare costs can be brought under control by making primary care accessible to everyone and encourage people to use it. We need to educate people so they feel comfortable seeing their primary care physician. We need to make emergency rooms for real emergencies. We need to have more primary care physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. This also means teaching people new 21st century ways to relate to our new healthcare system
All discussions seem to be about people being uninsured. This leads to all proposed solutions focus on finding ways to get people insured. Yes, this is important, however if we focus on people not having access to primary healthcare then proposed solutions will be about ways to get people access to primary healthcare. We need to also focus on ways to encourage people to use primary care providers as much of the US culture uses healthcare for acute care or waits until the really need emergency care. We need to encourage prevention and wellness supported by access to primary care. Even if people have access to primary care, they need to use it.
Florida Health Insurance and Medicare Website
www.floridahealthinsurance.com
International Health Insurance Website
www.insurance-network.com