I have an elderly neighbor I'm happy to take for his doctor appointments maybe once or twice a month because he is unable to drive himself. Last week he was telling me about his recent medical bills. One twenty-minute visit to his general practitioner cost nearly $600 dollars, which included $30 for merely writing a prescription. Another twenty-minute visit to his dermatologist was again nearly $600. In both cases, Medicare & Blue Cross (read: you and every other employed person) paid them in full, with no out of pocket costs charged to my friend.

He went on to say that if he were me, he would be angry about this. That was because though he had paid into Medicare, etc., all his working life, he was now receiving benefits that amounted to not only dollars to the penny that he had paid in, but to thousands of dollars to the penny that he had paid in. He said I would probably never see a penny towards my healthcare paid by Medicare or Blue Cross because when I retire (I am in my forties but have myself paid in for over thirty years), there would be no more money left in either of these funds, much like they say there will be no more money available to us younger people as Social Security.

I'm sure that the doctors could all take the position that what they charge is within the limit of what they are allowed to charge, which is probably so; but I think it's past high time those limits were lowered a great deal, to less obscene totals. Doctors should be in their professions to help people more than to live off the sweat of all working people so they can exist in the byzantine splendor of visiting potentates.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_W_Turner

Most of the Congressional debate for health care reform revolves around ways to extend reimbursement for sick care. However, paying for more of the same fragmented, costly care isn't reform, it's madness.

The $2.2 trillion health care system, the costliest in the world, requires a new top-to-bottom vision, and although the 600 doctors and health professionals gathered at the Institute of Medicine's Summit on Integrative Medicine last month didn't agree on everything, they reached a resounding consensus about the need for Americans to change their health habits. Yet how can that best be accomplished?

With a primary shift toward health promotion, disease prevention and wellness, a revamped health care system could put the brakes on the disastrous trajectory predicted for 2012, in which total health care costs would equal 20% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Providers, employers, and even insurance companies finally concede that the US would fall behind the world's nations in every imaginable sector if one out of every dollar of our productivity went toward health care costs.

For over 30 years, the National Wellness Institute has been reporting that 8 out of 10 Americans suffer from chronic ailments derived from unhealthy lifestyles: poor diet, inadequate physical activity and unmanaged stress. Yet the difficult task of behavior change has always fallen on individuals, without much support from the medical system or their doctors.

In addition, cultural support has been lacking for the most at-risk populations, often minorities with higher rates of diabetes and obesity. At present, there are more obese Americans than overweight ones-an almost unthinkable statistic.

Cultural support for healthy lifestyles starts with community activists demanding bike paths, public parks, safe streets, farmers' markets, fresh food options and more from their local governments. Together with cooperation from industry, government, health care, and public health officials, pressure can be placed on developers to build environments that provide opportunities for physical activity. Teachers, parents and consumers can demand that Big Food stop advertising cheap, non-nutritious, calorie-dense, processed foods to kids and young adults. Schools can offer nutrition and PE classes again, and lunch programs can teach kids about healthy choices-and provide them!

Should Your MD Get Paid to Teach Wellness?

"Lose weight, stop smoking, start exercising, and cut down on your stress-and I'll see you next year for your physical." Everybody knows that the once-a-year admonition from your doctor rarely translates into new health habits.

A new tier of health coaches can supply the support and encouragement needed for Americans to begin their journey towards maximizing personal health. Health coaches should be part of every public clinic, medical office and hospital wellness center. They should be reimbursed by insurance companies, or be part of the first-access tier of Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance companies and corporate wellness programs. Even Dr. Mehmet Oz suggested that health coaches should be considered a central part of health care reform to CNN's medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Instead of medical doctors expecting to be reimbursed for providing health promotion and wellness services (at rates exceeding $200/ hour), health coaches could easily provide this service at one-fifth the cost. They would also present a more friendly, accessible, peer-support approach to individuals. The specialized training of medical doctors is best directed to complex cases, whether acute or chronic.

The entire continuum of care needs to be re-examined and opened up to include reimbursement for health professionals that investigate the foundational causes of chronic illness, and who understand and have specialized skills in countering the ill effects of unhealthy lifestyles-professionals such as Nurse Practitioners, Naturopathic Doctors, and Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors, Homeopathic doctors, and Chiropractors.

For too long, there has been an active collusion barring the advancement of these professions by certain medical organizations with insurance companies, and the public has suffered as a result.

When these allied health professionals spoke up, demanding inclusion at the reimbursement table at the Summit on Integrative Medicine, a few medical doctors such as Dean Ornish, MD, championed this democratizing of the medical landscape, but others kept insisting that their own practices could accomplish wellness services, if only they were properly reimbursed.

However, reimbursement for lifestyle counseling should not have to include the major overhead encountered by medical doctors, including their clinical offices, costly tuition loans, high-tech equipment, numerous staff and billing clerks.

It's been said that the US health care system is neither healthy nor much of a system. I believe it's always darkest before the dawn of a new era, and these dark days of an ailing system must mean the light is about to break over the horizon.

Bringing health coaches into the US health care system can address the colossal "elephant in the middle of the room"-that the burden of disease and related health costs can be dramatically lowered through healthy behavioral change. Learning to move more, eat well and less, and de-stress often, is not only a prescription for a better life, it's an Rx for US health care reform.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meg_Jordan

Your health and wellness are your business and yours to manage! You are, or at least you should be, your own primary health provider! Not only do I believe wholeheartedly in these two statements, they are the basis of my philosophy of personal being. I encourage my clients to think in these terms while embracing the concepts of Alternative medicine and holistic health. No one is more affected by your health than you are! This is one of those "no brainers" that get overlooked when dealing with a complex issue. Sort of a reversal of "not being able to see the forest because the trees are in the way". In this case we can not see some of the solutions because the problems seem to be so overwhelming.

Today's society encourages us to expect instant automatic solutions to our problems. The "press this button", or "take this pill approach" to life! We have come to expect that regardless of what we "allow" to happen to ourselves, there is some wonder miracle drug that will cure it.

Part of the problem is we are no longer expected to be responsible for the consequences of our actions! Several years ago McDonald's was sued for causing people to get fat. Think about that for a moment. I consumed more calories than I burn, so I gain weight. But it is not my fault, its yours because you provided me with the food! Maybe it's just me (I don't think so), but this sounds too much like not accepting the consequence of own action. The "McDonald's made me fat" suit is just a highlighted example of what is becoming more and more prevalent in our society. I think we should get a class action suit going against the medical industry for not finding a cure for the cold or cancer. They know there's a problem but haven't given us a solution yet! Okay I admit that is a bit far fetched, but maybe not far off in the future!

The bottom line is we must take more responsibility for what happens to us. More responsibility for what goes into our bodies. Gain more understanding of what it is our bodies need. Take more notice of what our body is doing, or is not doing. Your personal physician or healthcare provider can not provide you with all of the answers. Most of the answers come from your body, learn to listen to it and understand it!



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=P._Sidney_Parker