Preventive Care to Improve Healthcare
It is a pleasure to have a guest author submit a blog posting on healthcare. Please visit her site as well. The link is at the end of the posting.
There’s a lot of discussion and debate going on about how healthcare facilities in this country can be improved. The problem with most of these arguments is that they all focus on treatment and care to be provided to patients and their associated costs. Hardly anyone raises their voice in favor of raising awareness about the preventive measures that can help reduce disease and illness by as much as 50 percent. If we are to bring about a significant improvement in the way our healthcare system is managed, we need to first:
· Educate people about preventive care: More programs must be developed to increase awareness about how preventive measures can help keep disease at bay. People should also learn that by preventing disease, they are helping to bring down the cost of healthcare all over the country. To this end, they need to be educated about the importance of a healthy diet, regular exercise, avoidance of stress, alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, and regular screenings and checkups for good overall wellbeing. Care should be taken to teach people about health aspects relating to every part of the body, from head to toe. Most diseases are expensive to treat because they are not diagnosed early; if people knew what the risk factors are for diseases like cancer, diabetes, strokes, cardiac arrests, hypertension and cholesterol (some of the most rampant and common health problems), they would be more aware of them and come in for diagnostic tests that could catch the disease at an early stage and thus facilitate a quicker recovery. In case of cancer, the earlier the tumor is detected, the better the chances of survival.
· Catch them young: The young of today become the old of tomorrow. It’s easier to teach them when they’re young because they’re more open to ideas and suggestions. Besides, the youth are aware of the problems the elderly face, and so are more receptive to trying out preventive measures that help keep disease at bay. Youngsters must be taught the value of good health early on so that they form good habits that last a lifetime. When relevant programs are developed and enforced all over the country, the efforts will bear fruit within a few years, and the healthcare costs of the country will definitely decrease with the decrease in the incidence of disease.
By-line:
This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of how to become a radiology technician at her blog The Overwhelmed Student Blog. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.
There’s a lot of discussion and debate going on about how healthcare facilities in this country can be improved. The problem with most of these arguments is that they all focus on treatment and care to be provided to patients and their associated costs. Hardly anyone raises their voice in favor of raising awareness about the preventive measures that can help reduce disease and illness by as much as 50 percent. If we are to bring about a significant improvement in the way our healthcare system is managed, we need to first:
· Educate people about preventive care: More programs must be developed to increase awareness about how preventive measures can help keep disease at bay. People should also learn that by preventing disease, they are helping to bring down the cost of healthcare all over the country. To this end, they need to be educated about the importance of a healthy diet, regular exercise, avoidance of stress, alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, and regular screenings and checkups for good overall wellbeing. Care should be taken to teach people about health aspects relating to every part of the body, from head to toe. Most diseases are expensive to treat because they are not diagnosed early; if people knew what the risk factors are for diseases like cancer, diabetes, strokes, cardiac arrests, hypertension and cholesterol (some of the most rampant and common health problems), they would be more aware of them and come in for diagnostic tests that could catch the disease at an early stage and thus facilitate a quicker recovery. In case of cancer, the earlier the tumor is detected, the better the chances of survival.
· Catch them young: The young of today become the old of tomorrow. It’s easier to teach them when they’re young because they’re more open to ideas and suggestions. Besides, the youth are aware of the problems the elderly face, and so are more receptive to trying out preventive measures that help keep disease at bay. Youngsters must be taught the value of good health early on so that they form good habits that last a lifetime. When relevant programs are developed and enforced all over the country, the efforts will bear fruit within a few years, and the healthcare costs of the country will definitely decrease with the decrease in the incidence of disease.
By-line:
This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of how to become a radiology technician at her blog The Overwhelmed Student Blog. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.
Labels: guest, healthcare
posted by Anonymous at 5:30 AM
6 Comments:
Regarding "regular screenings and checkups": There is an increasing body of evidence that says that while preventive care is great for the individual and can add additional years of healthy life, it doesn't necessarily lead to an overall reduction in medical expenses. In fact, some experts predict that a comprehensive program of preventive care will surface otherwise unknown conditions that will cause doctors to order expensive further tests. Many of those conditions might have remained benign if left alone.
If it is true that a high percentage of total medical costs occur in the final years of life, then unless we find a cure for death, adding years of life will simply add years of, at least, routine medical expenses with the end of life issues remaining the same. As unappealing as it is, so-called "rationing" of care for the elderly or those near the end of life is likely to be the only long term solution to rising costs.
The problem with most of these arguments is that they all focus on treatment and care to be provided to patients and their associated costs.
Ya....specially at this economy hard time.
Anonymous, I would like to have the choice when I am old to have medical care and not the government making the decision for me. If you want to choose not to get medical care when you are old that is your decision. You have no right to make that decision for other people!!!!! What age is elderly? Who is going to make that call? When exactly is the final years of life? If you don't think this is the first step to Euthanasia you are a fool.
I don't know your age, but if you are lucky one day you will be old too. I imagine your opinion will change and I hope it is not too late.
As far as I am concerned, you are free to get all the medical care YOU CAN AFFORD up to the last minute of your life. However, if you want to use some of MY money, either through taxes or the rates I pay for medical insurance, then I think the rest of us have a say in what you can do. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal pointed out that a high percentage of cancer patients were still undergoing radiation or chemotherapy within two weeks of their deaths. Now that, in my opinion, is just stupid and wasteful for everyone involved except the providers of the treatments.
You people who go around wringing your hands about creeping toward euthanasia, ignore the fact that DNR's, withholding nutrition, and simply allowing terminally ill people to die peacefully is, and has been, common for years. What would you suggest as an alternative?
Well take Obama's healthcare plan and your tax dollars will be paying for everyones healthcare not just the elderly. I can assure you it will be worse care for everyone not just what you want for the cancer patients and elderly.
As for euthanasia there is a huge difference between giving a shot to end a life and keeping a person as comfortable as possible while they die. On one hand you are complaining about treatment for the elderly and dying and the other hand you are arguing against people choosing to die naturally and as comfortable possible without medical intervention. Which is it?
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/scrowder/2009/07/13/must-see-undercover-expose-of-socialized-healthcare/
Hey Anonymous 7/13/09 6:02 AM
Check out the video from the website above and you can see what our healtcare will be like.
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