Healthcare Costs in America

 

“Wisdom is more valuable than jewels; nothing you could want can compare with it.
Wisdom offers you long life, as well as wealth and honor.
Wisdom can make your life pleasant and lead you safely through it.
Those who become wise are happy; wisdom will give them life.”

Proverbs 3:15-18

The National Public Radio, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health had jointly conducted the Sick in America Poll and found that 27% of Americans who use the health system as a result of their illness or disability are encountering financial challenges.

9 in 10 Americans believe that health care costs in the medical system are a serious problem for the nation and 70% of sick Americans agree that this problem has gotten worse over the last 5 years.

When asked what factors are responsible for rising health care costs in the U.S., large majorities of ill Americans say “it’s the charges,” pointing to organizations charging too much money for products and services: these include drug companies (85%), hospitals (78%), insurance companies (75%), and doctors (58%).

70% of patients also say that because people are not taking good care of their health that’s driving up health care utilization and, thus, costs for more medical treatment.

Other cost drivers cited by the sick are fraud and abuse (61%), lack of coordinated care which leads to duplication of tests and treatments (54%), and 51% of people noting population aging, government regulation, and Medicare and Medicaid spending out of control.

In addition, 47% of patients told that doctors and nurses don’t spend enough time with patients in a question on reasons for problems with quality of care, along with 44% saying people not following through on the advice or treatment recommendations of their doctors.

Having read the results of The Sick in American Poll, I would like to see pollsters from many well known universities in Thailand conduct the survey of Thai medical services so that we will know the opinion of Thai patients.

Patients who have frequently used the services from hospitals are well aware of problems in the medical system; the coordination of care, team-based care and communication, and a workflow communication with patients.  

In solving the gap between medical service providers and patients who receive their services, patients must be the center of services. Patients must be informed, understood and engaged in the decision to use the necessary needs of medical care. This would help to close the service gap and lead to the effectiveness of health care spending in the end.

Bill Frist quotes “America has the best doctors, the best nurses, the best hospitals, the best medical technology, the best medical breakthrough medicines in the world. There is absolutely no reason we should not have in this country the best health care in the world.”

        Are we following the Americans? L