How to Heal A Sick Health Care System | Inspired Bites

Health care. You couldn?t pick a more loaded political topic (OK, maybe oil) which is absolutely fascinating. ?Especially in light of the escalating rates of diseases in our country.

Because the bottom line is that unfortunately, we are growing sicker by the year?and in increasing need of a thriving health care system to address these conditions.

No one wants to admit these things, and yet the Centers for Disease Control continues to release alarming statistics: from cancer being the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of fifteen, to the escalating rates of asthma, to the increased hospitalizations related to food allergic reactions. ?It?s not just our health that is coming under pressure, our medical system is, too.

But rather than careen into the darkness, let?s not stop and pause for a moment to reflect on the state of our health and our healthcare system. ?Let?s dialogue, based on the principals of Joseph Schumpeter and that of creative disruption, and take a hard and honest look at the existing model in order to revolutionize the design of a new one.

No other nation on the planet spends as much as we do on medical care. ?As a matter of fact, no one spends more than 12% of their total economy, their GDP, on health care costs.

But according to TIME Magazine, ?the most striking aspect of America?s medical system remains how much of an outlier it is in the advanced industrial world.?

What do we spend? ?17%. ?So 17 cents of every dollar floating around in our economy is spent in the medical system. ?Sure, that?s a great model if you are a company in the medical system capturing those expenditures, it drives shareholder return. ?But what about the impact that these costs have on our families, corporations and ultimately our economy?

Well, let?s take a look.

The fact of the matter is that we do worse than most other countries on almost every measure of health outcomes. ?We lag behind countries like Bosnia and South Korea in terms of life expectancy at birth, as well as show elevated levels of infant mortality and depressed levels of patient satisfaction.

In other words, we?re not healthy and we?re not happy with the system we?ve got.

As TIME Magazine writes ?Put simply, we have the most expensive, least efficient system of any rich country on the planet. ?Costs remain high on every level.?

But just because this is the system that we?ve inherited (consider it a prototype), it doesn?t mean that it has to be the system we continue to embrace going forward. ?We had the fax machine for a while. ?It worked, but then we developed new technologies, smarter, better, more efficient prototypes. ?We can do the same thing here.

The landscape in front of us is wide open. ?And we know that America?s got talent, creativity and a fierce entrepreneurial spirit with which it can drive change. ?It?s those characteristics upon which our country was founded.

So lend your talent. ?Put some skin in the game. Whatever you want to call it.

Let?s bring food into the health care equation and let?s figure this out. ?Because we?ve got too much at stake, as a country, as an economy and as citizens both at home and in the global marketplace.

heisman finalists heisman finalists kepler 22 b kepler 22 b st nicholas st nicholas mindy mccready