Saturday, August 15, 2009
Reducing the Cost of Medical Care
The main controversy over the proposed health care legislation currently being discussed has to with its cost. There have been many articles in the Times presenting studies indicating that much very expensive medical care produces little or no positive results and is not evidenced based. The recent article "I n Health Reform, a Cancer Offers and Acid Test", ( The Times, July 8, 2009, page A1) makes just this point. It lists the costs of the different treatments for prostate cancer from $2436. to $ 51069 , stating that the risks of the more invasive care are not worth the small ---or " non-existent benefits" Some time ago in the Times, an article entitled " 26 Billion a year on Spine Surgery and We Don't know Whether it Helps". (2.5% of total medical costs) The article goes on to report that "in 85 % of back pain cases, we don't know what causes the pain".. Research in the area of showing "evidence based" confirmation of therapeutic effectiveness might well save enough money to make the health care plan in contention practical and affordable. Another major step would be to in some way increase the use of primary care---one-on-one evaluation and treatment with one's "family physician".
The main controversy over the proposed health care legislation currently being discussed has to with its cost. There have been many articles in the Times presenting studies indicating that much very expensive medical care produces little or no positive results and is not evidenced based. The recent article "I n Health Reform, a Cancer Offers and Acid Test", ( The Times, July 8, 2009, page A1) makes just this point. It lists the costs of the different treatments for prostate cancer from $2436. to $ 51069 , stating that the risks of the more invasive care are not worth the small ---or " non-existent benefits" Some time ago in the Times, an article entitled " 26 Billion a year on Spine Surgery and We Don't know Whether it Helps". (2.5% of total medical costs) The article goes on to report that "in 85 % of back pain cases, we don't know what causes the pain".. Research in the area of showing "evidence based" confirmation of therapeutic effectiveness might well save enough money to make the health care plan in contention practical and affordable. Another major step would be to in some way increase the use of primary care---one-on-one evaluation and treatment with one's "family physician".
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