From Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D., J.D.:
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying all the wrong remedies.” -Groucho Marx
The politics of selling the Affordable Care Act (ACA) focuses on promising health and wellness. Somehow, having “coverage” is supposed to get you to a primary care doctor, who will keep you healthy. And if he doesn’t, he will be held accountable by not being paid.
The fact is that “healthcare reform” is not going to cure America’s health problems.
Physicians, think tanks, and politicians are pointing out a myriad of problems with ACA. But most of them miss the main point, which starts with calling it “healthcare reform.” The term, and the conversation about it, conflates health care and medical care. But they are not the same thing. Individuals are in charge of their own health care. Physicians provide medical care to those who become sick.
As I and others see the problems with “wellness initiatives” promoted by politicians and the insurance industry as cornerstones of our efforts to cut costs in our medical system, we should consider if institutional financial incentives will thwart any effort to achieve cost savings as physician productivity quotas are increasingly turned to as the driving force de rigueur for hospital profitability. Unfortunately, physicians are losing their ability to be stretched much further, especially as they struggle to keep up with the mushrooming number of inefficient certification and data-entry requirements, flooded e-mail in-boxes, and coding requirements necessary to continue practicing medicine in our new “reform” era. Then add the increasingly frequent hassles doctors are experiencing with their patients’ insurance claim denials that go on for months. Medical care suffers as a result. Even our frontline force for quality medical care, nurses, are being stretched thin as many of their ranks are either let go or recruited as cleaning crews on top of their other patient care responsibilities.
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The home care industry is booming. As Baby Boomers age and more families seek in-home solutions for loved ones, demand for home care services is at an all-time high.
Meanwhile, the insurance companies are recording record profits as Americans pay more and more into our system.
But, hey, thanks to the Electronic Medical Record and health care “reform” it sure is easy to order another colonoscopy in the name of “wellness” and “health care,” right?
-Wes
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Westby G. Fisher, MD, FACC is a board certified internist, cardiologist, and cardiac electrophysiologist (doctor specializing in heart rhythm disorders) practicing at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, IL, USA and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. He entered the blog-o-sphere in November, 2005. He writes regularly at Dr. Wes. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this blog are strictly the those of the author(s) and should not be construed as the opinion(s) or policy(ies) of NorthShore University HealthSystem, nor recommendations for your care or anyone else's. Please seek professional guidance instead.
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