The Problem With Health Care
Why we need to re-think the everything from the ground up
As populations age and as lifestyle choices become ever less adequate, health care systems across the world are increasingly over-burdened. Spending on palliative health care increases each year, yet outcomes continue to deteriorate. Citizens take less and less care of themselves, and doctors have less and less time to spend with each patient as backlogs continue to grow.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that (a) something fundamental is wrong with the way we’re approaching health care provision, and (b) we’re on a one-way path to disaster.
Fortunately we don’t need a genius to diagnose what’s wrong here. We simply need to look at the facts, understand the components of the problem, and begin to consider alternative approaches that may be far more efficacious.
Let’s begin with the core element of most health care systems: the doctor-patient interaction.
This is a paradigm delightfully stuck for our endless amusement in the Middle Ages. The doctor is the Expert and the patient is merely a fleshy bag of Symptoms. Overt power resides entirely with the doctor and the patient’s only options are (a) obedience, or (b) non-compliance.
