Evolution of Wellness Part 3

Evolution of Wellness Part 3

These changes in health care have greatly shifted our focus of attention regarding our own health.  As I will mention many times throughout this writing, people make their decisions through incentives.  They choose by picking which decision will have the greatest benefit and the least amount of consequence.  When a person has health insurance they are lulled to sleep in terms of being alert to their own responsibility of their health.  They did not have to worry about getting sick because their health insurance would cover medications and surgeries that would eliminate their symptoms.  

Medicare allowed people to not have to plan for a healthy life as they grew older.  People could virtually be careless and worry free because their medical costs and healthcare would be covered when they entered old age.   Medicaid was developed to allow people with disabilities and those living below the poverty line to have coverage.   

It is obvious that people do not find as much value in anything they receive for free.  This in turn allowed the insurance companies to begin a dictatorship over the healthcare industries setting fee schedules for reimbursement of services they deemed necessary.  People did not care how much these services cost nor did they have enough knowledge to determine the appropriate treatment for their type of ailment.  Unfortunately, these mandates have caused doctors to only prescribe treatments that the insurance companies reimburse for.   Insurance companies also do not reimburse for lifestyle modification training programs for patients that are diagnosed with these problems.  Insurance companies are reimbursing less and less causing the physicians to have to see more patients, ultimately allowing them less and less time to spend on patient care.  

Physicians are also being employed more and more through hospitals and less and less by private practices.  Hospitals are a system that focuses more on the bottom line and is ran by people with MBA’s and law degrees not healthcare practitioners. 

I have heard so many stories from my patients that sound something like this, “I was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure and was placed on medication A.”  I ask, “Did they talk to you about your diet and exercising?”  The patient usually says, “Yes, they told me to start exercising and eating healthier, but I have a bad back and I have tried to lose weight but it never works.  There are so many different diets out there that focus on carbs, no carbs, high protein?  Its all just so confusing.  I have cut down my sodium intake in the past year as well.  What else can I do?”  The patient then tells me that regarding the exercise part the physician says, “Well just do what you can” and regarding the diet, “it sounds like you are on the right track just keep up with what you are doing, and maybe you could try weight watchers.”  

Patients with herniated lumbar discs and that are not dietitians or personal trainers struggle with the basic understanding of exercise and nutrition and need a structured plan and guidance.  Unfortunately the doctors are not educated this way, the pharmaceutical companies wish to preserve the status quo and insurance companies do not reimburse for effective exercise, weight loss and nutrition programs.  These people are left to slip through the cracks only years later to have a triple bypass heart surgery, along with type II diabetes and a total joint replacement from becoming less and less active making the hospitals and the pharmaceutical companies, you guessed it, billions of dollars.  

Why would they want to change, they are getting rich off of the current system.  Any social system that has members capitalizing from the misfortunes of other members of society will eventually be exposed, sure to have trouble, and have to change its ways.  This time is not far away. The revolution has already begun!