The Driving Costs of Healthcare:Corporate Controlled Costs

Medical doctors , especially those who practice and promote prevention in health are perhaps the foremost experts in implementing healthcare policy. Physicians are the primary markers of an efficient system. But, new studies indicate doctors may be changing careers due to the stress on being able to deliver efficient medicine from forces that are driving the cost of healthcare. These forces include the rising rates of 3rd party participation , high rate of drugs, higher costs of medical procedures and instruments, None of these are costs controlled directly by physicians. The controllers of these costs are major corporations. However, clinicians who must make cost effective decisions on a daily basis are not a large part of the heakth policy makers of national policy. When interviewed most medical doctors will tell you they support a " public option" or "medicare for all" system to promote the efficiency of providing healthcare and controlling costs. These systems , however, are not promoted by the "corporate controllers" of costs in the healthcare system . These "corporate controllers" are whose opinions matter most in hammering out policy. The "corporate controllers" of costs would rather see a system that "mandates" every person to have health coverage whether they can afford it or not . Firstly, this adds 50 million new customers to the corporate controlled system. But, the question remains, "what happens to those who can't still buy it?" Well, quite simply, they will be "fined" or pay a penalty. If they are still not able to do this they may be put up on criminal charges. This is the same as what happens with those who do not carry liability with car insurance in states that mandate car insurance. For medical doctors and clinical behavorist it would stand to reason that getting people to take personal responsiliity for their health and start behavior modification to promote better health habits can better improve health and have profound implications on an individuals or corporate bottomline . Could the same result be also seen with a national health budget? Several studies done by health promotions experts and universities looking at prevention in the labor force prove this to be the case. But, even government studies published by the NIH and CDC also indicate similar results are quite possible. So, why "punish" a person who is unable to pay for health coverage or those who are unwilling to improve health ? Instead introduce or offer similar community and worksite health promtions and prevention programs from grade school to them to live a better lifestyle as they reduce the costs on the system? The "corporate controlled" model has been alrady used and proven not to be efficient for either physicians to carry out cost-effective medicine , nor prevent disease or control costs for patients. The most notable model for corporate control was initiated by the state government of Massachusetts. The "corporate controlled" model also hangs physicians out to dry while at the same time ties their hands behind them limiting their ability to carry out efficient medicine while forcing every decision they make to be a "corporate decision" first. As the presidential debates get underway, Medicare is where the two predominant parties will be "circling their wagons" . Privately, physicians represent a large independent and "undecided" demographic due to their view that they are one of the most trained and educated on health policy , but are gravely under-utilized. Isn't it high time we started listening to what they have to say? Dr. Marcus Wells is a post-doctoral fellow(clinical associate) of the NIH where he completed his tenure at the U.S. Health and Human Services , U.S. Public Health Services, U.S. Commssioned Corp. Dr. Wells holds a Master's in Public Health(MPH) from Emory Unversity.