The “Experts” view of a Sustainable Healthcare System
As reported in How Can Health IT Lead to a More Sustainable Health Care System?,
On October 28, 2011, the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) convened a small group of national experts—economists, actuaries, and health IT experts from the private sector and government—to discuss common approaches for understanding the financial impact of clinical interventions that make use of health IT.
I’m always interested in new ways to lower healthcare costs, but this article struck a nerve and caused me to post the following response, and I’m pleased that the moderator didn’t reject it.
Wayne Caswell, Modern Health Talk says:
No wonder health consumers lack confidence in government- or industry-led solutions to our healthcare problems and are forming an Occupy Healthcare movement. Convening a group of “national experts” (economists, actuaries, and health IT experts), without a much broader perspective that includes healthcare consumers themselves, is sure to ignore the many other issues affecting the health of our nation and the cost of delivering care. Any attempt to reduce costs must start with prevention to reduce the need for care in the first place.
Individually, these broader issues are well understood and difficult enough to solve on their own, but in combination this list is quite daunting and shows the challenge that an Occupy Healthcare movement must contend with.
- Consumer incentives for healthy living
- Nutritious foods (FoodIncMovie.com, AllJackedUpMovie.com, KingCorn.net, FoxSearchLight.com/fastfoodnation, TheFutureOfFood.com, TopDocumentaryFilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto, eatwild.com)
- Genetic engineering (BadSeed.info)
- Soil quality (FreshTheMovie.com, KingCorn.net)
- Clean drinking water and waste water treatment (FlowTheFilm.com, ThirstTheMovie.org)
- Industrial contamination (GasLandTheMovie.com, TexasGoldMovie.com)
- Pollution (ErinBrockovichMovie.com)
- The environment (TheGreatWarming.com, TopDocumentaryFilms.com/11th-hour)
- Political corruption (WalMartMovie.com)
- Poverty
- Digital divide
- Public education
- Widening wealth gap
- Population growth
- Aging demographics
- Climate change
Many other health-related topics (and movies) can be found at: http://www.grinningplanet.com/6001/environmental-movies.htm.
