Health Care: Let's Set Aside Logistics, Let's Talk About What the Americans Really Want

Facts are Facts:

• More than 90% of those surveyed last fall by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions said that healthcare costs are a threat to their personal financial security.
• 80% gave the system a mediocre grade or worse.

Although many Americans are skeptical of what Congress has proposed thus far, including myself, change in the Health Care is necessary and inevitable, and that's the message President Obama is pushing.

According to an OP-Ed in the LA Times, "the current system generally reimburses providers for what they do to their patients, not how well their patients stay, which means it undervalues immunizations, routine checkups and other services that can ward off or mitigate ailments."

Therefore, the insurance companies are rather passive towards their patients, not aggressive, because the financial incentives stem from medical procedures such as surgery, not checkups.

The OP-Ed also pushes for greater integration of technology into the world of Medicine. The advancement 0f electronic medical records into our medical system currently seems to be one of the sole points of common ground among all Americans. It will improve patient care greatly, by "guiding which medicines are prescribed, what dosages are ordered and when they are to be administered -- three of the most common sources of medical foul-ups."

Accommodating electronic medical records into our Health Care systems is costly, but it's a price worth paying for.

*Update on Health Care legislation: So unless lawmakers across the board swiftly sort out the kinks of the bill (highly unlikely), reform is not expected to be voted upon by the August deadline in either the House or the Senate, as the President hoped for. The high costs of the bill and the means in which to pay for Health Care Reform has especially stalled talks of marking up legislation among Senate Democrats.