By Dr. Elliot
The American health care system is broken.
In fact, I’ll go further than that: Health care in America isn’t health care at all. It’s “disease care” or “disease management” or “emergency care”. Call it anything you want. Just don’t call it “health care”.
We don’t promote health. We treat disease. Has it always been this way? Not at all.
Over the past generation, medicine has changed. It’s become big business. The focus has shifted from patient to profit. It’s an industry, now.
The result? Doctors today are frustrated, overwhelmed, and even burned out. They spend their days seeing too many patients in quick, in-and-out appointments. They look at and touch their computers more than they do their patients. They take care of their employers. They take care of their insurers. They take care of their documentation. They don’t have time to care for their patients. Not the way they’d like to.
Not convinced? Consider this: When your physician enters the exam room, he or she always wrestles with two questions: First, “What’s the right thing to do for this patient?” Second, “What will insurance allow?” All too frequently, the answers are quite different. Miles apart, in fact.
Now, there’s a lot to be said for Convention Medicine. Conventional Medicine is extremely good at treating acute problems: a sudden illness, a serious injury, a medical emergency. Where Conventional Medicine falls short, however, is chronic disease. When it comes to preventing and treating chronic disease, Conventional Medicine fails.
Is there an alternative?
Yes there is. Here’s what real Heath Care looks like.
First, where Disease Care addresses symptoms, real Health Care investigates and treats the true “root cause” of those symptoms.
Where Disease Care reflexively writes prescriptions, real Health Care uses more natural treatments emphasizing nutrition and life-style changes.
Where the Disease Care model treats disease after the fact, real Health Care aims at preventing disease from happening in the first place.
Where the Disease Care model divides the body up into parts, each with its own specialist (cardiologist, endocrinologist, etc.), real Health Care embraces the complex interrelatedness of all parts and treats the whole patient.
Where Disease Care patients are discouraged from taking an active role in their own care and are often ill-informed about their condition, real Health Care patients are educated by their physician and empowered to take an active role in their journey toward more optimal health.
Does real Health Care exist? Yes it does. It exists in the world of Functional and Integrative Medicine. While it’s a small movement today, it’s growing steadily. It’s the medicine of the future. It’s medicine done right.
The American health care system is broken.
In fact, I’ll go further than that: Health care in America isn’t health care at all. It’s “disease care” or “disease management” or “emergency care”. Call it anything you want. Just don’t call it “health care”.
We don’t promote health. We treat disease. Has it always been this way? Not at all.
Over the past generation, medicine has changed. It’s become big business. The focus has shifted from patient to profit. It’s an industry, now.
The result? Doctors today are frustrated, overwhelmed, and even burned out. They spend their days seeing too many patients in quick, in-and-out appointments. They look at and touch their computers more than they do their patients. They take care of their employers. They take care of their insurers. They take care of their documentation. They don’t have time to care for their patients. Not the way they’d like to.
Not convinced? Consider this: When your physician enters the exam room, he or she always wrestles with two questions: First, “What’s the right thing to do for this patient?” Second, “What will insurance allow?” All too frequently, the answers are quite different. Miles apart, in fact.
Now, there’s a lot to be said for Convention Medicine. Conventional Medicine is extremely good at treating acute problems: a sudden illness, a serious injury, a medical emergency. Where Conventional Medicine falls short, however, is chronic disease. When it comes to preventing and treating chronic disease, Conventional Medicine fails.
Is there an alternative?
Yes there is. Here’s what real Heath Care looks like.
First, where Disease Care addresses symptoms, real Health Care investigates and treats the true “root cause” of those symptoms.
Where Disease Care reflexively writes prescriptions, real Health Care uses more natural treatments emphasizing nutrition and life-style changes.
Where the Disease Care model treats disease after the fact, real Health Care aims at preventing disease from happening in the first place.
Where the Disease Care model divides the body up into parts, each with its own specialist (cardiologist, endocrinologist, etc.), real Health Care embraces the complex interrelatedness of all parts and treats the whole patient.
Where Disease Care patients are discouraged from taking an active role in their own care and are often ill-informed about their condition, real Health Care patients are educated by their physician and empowered to take an active role in their journey toward more optimal health.
Does real Health Care exist? Yes it does. It exists in the world of Functional and Integrative Medicine. While it’s a small movement today, it’s growing steadily. It’s the medicine of the future. It’s medicine done right.
Is our “Health Care” system working? What do you think?
- Today the U.S. Spends over $2,000,000,000,000 on “health care” annually. That’s more than any other nation total and more than twice as much per person than any other country on earth.
- Despite all that money, the U.S. Ranks 34th in life expectancy and 29th in infant mortality.
- Among the 13 nations most like us, the U.S. ranks next to last in 16 important measures of health.
- According to JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) medical care today may actually be the leading cause of death in the U.S.
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