The current medical care system is largely fee for services, where doctors and hospitals are paid for service at prices negotiated with medical insurance companies or mandated by the government. The current economic recession has caused businesses to move to high co-pays and deductibles to influence employees to seek only necessary medical care.
The two major government health insurance programs, Medicare and Medicaid are for the poor - pay below cost, medical hospitals have sought to make up the difference with prices above cost for commercial medical insurers. Pressure to reduce health care has led commercial medical insurers and the government to reduce payments for health care. Medical providers then have an incentive to attract more patients in order to cover the economic short falls. This unfortunately has lead to an increase of total cost health care.
And what makes it worse is that each insurer has its own payment formula that creates confusing bill systems that requires a large staff to sort everything out. The worsening economy is causing people to delay preventative medical care because they can’t afford their co-payments. As more and more people lose their jobs, it is causing a shift from commercial insurance to government medical insurance programs. It is time for a change. The health care system needs to be built around preventative health, not managing sickness.
Healthy people require less care, thus lowering medical cost. People need to adopt healthier lifestyles. Exercise more and eat less. But more importantly people need to use this economic crisis as an opportunity to change the payment incentives for the medical care professionals. They need to be rewarded for creating healthy communities not treat sick ones.
