[Peace-discuss] health care crisis in US

["E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"]

I have pointed out repeatedly that the problem with health care in the USA is not
a problem with who pays the bill.  The problem is that the
USA does not make enough doctors.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/doctor-article-1.1296804?print

The solution is so simple
like the Jitterbug,
that it is plumb evasive.
(like the Nazz, babiez.)

1.  Restore to the people the power to make self-treatment.
Many places in the world, the people have the option to purchase
a variety of medicines (modern and traditional/herbal) and treat
themselves.  This redirects a lot of the simple matters to
the people themselves.

2.  Train up an army (in the best sense of the word) of intermediate
medical paraprofessionals (medics, in the best sense of the word) who can
assist the people with their basic needs for medical care.
You don't need someone with an 8-year degree and internships to
treat a bumblebee sting or a skateboard gravel-rash or a bad cold,
but sometimes people don't know what to do about those things.

In a more perfect world, the churches would be involved in such matters.
After all, when something goes wrong with your car, you can take
it back to the dealership for service.

3.  Train more doctors.  The medical colleges of the US
are turning out an expensive product for the high-end market.
That is good for the Elite but it does not meet the need of
the 99%. When you have made enough doctors that some of them
take jobs driving taxicabs and flipping omelets at Waffle House
then you have gone quite far enough.

The medical-pharmaceutical-insurance industrial complex
is a Moloch with very deep pockets and will threaten to let you die
if you dont continue to feed it your babies...
I read that Goliath started toward David...expect a fight.

*

Bernie Sanders is probably not one of my favourite people
and I think that some of his authoritarian nanny-state ideas
are just plain goofy if not frightening,
but he "gets it" on matter of doctor shortages.


http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=f891ab5d-bf58-459f-bb6e-89564d36f8af


I always think that people who agree with me are pretty smart.
(Bernie "gets it" on the matter of too-big-to-jail banksters too.)

Sanders writes:

A Senate panel...examined a “major crisis” in primary health care at a time when 30 million more patients will soon get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and worsen an already acute doctor shortage. One in five Americans today live in areas where they do not have adequate access to primary care due to a shortage of providers, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders (the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging).

“In our country today we are spending almost twice as much per capita on health care as any other major country yet our health outcomes in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality and disease prevention are not particularly good,” Sanders said. “One of the reasons for that is that we have a major crisis regarding primary health care access which results in lower quality health care for our people and greater expenditures.”

According to a report released at the hearing, as many as 45,000 people die each year because they do not have health insurance and do not get to a doctor on time. A significant reason for the lack of access to care is that less than one-third of all doctors in America today practice primary care, down for half of all physicians 50 years ago. The problem is likely to get worse because many primary care doctors are nearing retirement and fewer and fewer medical students are interested in becoming family practitioners.

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