Leaning slightly to the left, our group believes physicians, nurses and other health care providers need to take a more proactive approach to treating patients. With approximately half of all chronic diseases being linked to preventable problems including smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity and 70% of health care spending being put toward these diseases, this requires more attention to primary prevention of disease (www.healthcareproblems.org). Primary prevention is the future health of all Americans. By preventing diseases before they begin opens a door to the right direction on the issue of health care reform.
Education is another responsibility of these individuals. Many studies have shown that when patients with chronic diseases focus on their health and get involved in their own care, their overall health improves and health expenses decrease (www.pbs.org). Through education, health care providers empower their patients to take on a healthier lifestyle and proceed on a path of changing high risk behaviors.
Although education may encourage individuals to live a healthier lifestyle, access, quality, and affordability of health care are crucial to paving the way for a healthier America. Both individual and population health are closely related to having access to adequate preventive and curative health care is a key determinant of health (Shi, Shing pg. 52). About 44 million people in the United States have no health insurance, and another 38 million have inadequate health insurance. These staggering numbers create a gap in the ability to seek preventive care. A quote from Sherry Glied, PhD, Associate Professor of Public Health, Columbia University explains these three important dimensions of health care reform,
“The people who are most at risk today are those who have no health insurance at all. They’re at risk of not getting regular care when they need it. They’re at risk of not getting regular care when they need it. They’re at risk of not catching real problems before they get serous enough to not be treatable. They’re at risk of not getting the best treatment when they actually do get sick. And they’re at tremendous financial risk. They could lose everything that they’ve saved in their lives because of some even fairly minor health problem www.columbiauniversity.edu.”
As the members of our group continue on our journey of the health education program, we realize the importance of the three dimensions, access, quality, and affordability. Without having equal emphasis put on all three, the system doesn’t run as it is needed to. If one dimension of the triangle is unattainable, the other two will not be able to compensate and the system will fail.
As a member and employee of a health care facility, our group feels it is those individuals responsibility to address issues that are concerning to the public. According to Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, “fraud in health care is rampant” (www.hospicepatients.org). There are a few issues such as intentionally understaffing facilities, making decisions which harm to patients is known, and assigning more cases than capacity to maximize profits. These are issues that are harming the quality of care patients are getting and we feel it would have beneficial value to change the attitude from money to patient care.
The Shi and Shing text states, that “the American public’s attitudes toward improving health are based on more medical research, development of new medical technology, and spending more on high-tech medical care” (pg. 52). As our group was reading this statement we realized the shocking truth to it. As American citizens we have gone away from the belief of living a healthy lifestyle. Most feel too busy to incorporate daily exercise or even a daily intake of fruits and vegetables. This has had serious consequences to our society and it is our responsibility to have our voices heard and shift the emphasis of health care to primary prevention.
As health educators and potential health care workers, these are serious issues that we need to be educated about in order to have a positive influence. Health care reform is a high on the priority list of our influential leaders and it is important for them to know how we feel and what we, as educators and providers need to make health care affordable, accessible, and effective.