{"id":1079,"date":"2019-08-07T14:09:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1079"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:09:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:09:33","slug":"we-have-met-the-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1079","title":{"rendered":"We Have met the Enemy…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Everyone rails against the cost of healthcare in these\nUnited States, but honestly, we have done just a little to address the problem.\nI\u2019m not sure things are bad enough yet for us to have the motivation to look in\nthe mirror. Because, for healthcare to cost less for all of us, some of us,\nmaybe all of us will have to give up something, and right now we Americans are\nblaming everyone else for our problems. Americans aren\u2019t really in the mood for\nany small sacrifice, no matter if we would all be better off; just look at\nCongress\u2019 and our President\u2019s spending habits of late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, this mess is wholly ours. It\u2019s not Muslims, Mexicans or\nthe Chinese who have driven our healthcare costs to be unaffordable to middle\nincome Americans; it is us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we are going to start laying blame, we can all bear some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have come to expect medicine to solve every problem, from\nour kid\u2019s behavior to the existential malaise of working hard at a thankless\njob. Pharmaceutical companies are glad to profit greatly off this desire for\npeace. And we are happy see our 401K\u2019s swell as Pharma stock climbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More, we don\u2019t have the patient understanding that most\nailments are self-limited; many things resolve with \u201cbenign neglect\u201d. And the\nmedical profession responds happily to these instant needs with instant access:\nRedicare, QuickCare, UrgentCare. But the continuity of care is missing and\ntests are piled on tests. Treatment pleases most consumers more than watchful\nwaiting, so medications, quick fixes are prescribed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We value \u201cthe best\u201d when often \u201cgood enough\u201d will do, so\nspecialty care is well-compensated and much desired by both patients and\npractitioners, when primary care has been shown time and again to be the most\ncost-effective care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We avoid difficult conversations, with our healthcare\nproviders or even ourselves about painful, but health-affecting behaviors. We should\nreflect on our weight, our exercise, our diet, our habits, our sleep, our spiritual\nand interpersonal relationships. Sometimes we pretend our deaths are not\ninevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does the truth that 50% of health care costs can be\nattributed to 5% of the population strike you? If you are in the less costly\n95% do you feel lucky for your health, or are you angry that you are paying for\nsomeone else\u2019s greater needs? Do you find yourself questioning their treatment\nchoices? Would you like to be a part of the discussion around their bedside\nabout the chemotherapy, the transplant? If you see the sick 5% as the enemy, then\nI challenge you to define who is \u201cus\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are things public policy can do to pinch the costs of\nhealthcare. The Affordable Care Act did a scant few. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hospitals were not paid for any costs of complications they\ncaused. Guess what, complications went down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taxing medical appliances was another attempt to make the\nhighly profitable medical appliance market more competitive, but it quickly got\noverturned by Republicans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fees proposed on \u201cCadillac Health plans\u201d to pay for the\ncosts of health insurance subsidies on the individual health insurance exchange\nwas another attempt to even the health care benefits playing field. But\nDemocrats and Republicans are going to throw this under the bus and the Federal\ndeficit will balloon another $400B. No, there\u2019s not a lot of courage out there\nin the healthcare discussion right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cannot expect our elected representatives to have courage\nin the face of these difficult policy decisions when we aren\u2019t prepared to have\nthese cost discussions with ourselves; in the mirror, with our family, with our\ndoctors. Don\u2019t be afraid to know yourself. Please; the only way to defeat a\nstrong enemy is to know them well. In this instance, they are us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone rails against the cost of healthcare in these United States, but honestly, we have done just a little to address the problem. I\u2019m not sure things are bad enough yet for us to have the motivation to look in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1081,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}