Five 'Ps' for Improving Healthcare Costs

I am thankful ADVANCE for Nurses has political coverage on their home page; I am not sure how well informed I would be about our current Presidential candidates without it. This winter my son and I kept up on the happenings because of his interest in politics. But, alas, it is now summertime. Swimming, camp, and the great outdoors have reclaimed my nearly 10-year-old son, leaving our television dormant most of the day. These days I catch glimpses of the news in the morning or just before bed. To stay informed, I peek in every now again at various websites to stay updated on areas that interest or concern me. And, of course, with the impending elections and health care crisis, I do my best to see what each candidate proposes to fix our country. Locally, I like to read what the general public has to say about health care.

After reading one such article titled: "Healthcare costs expected to rise over next two years" that appeared on a local televisions station's site, I felt like banging my head against a wall. The article ended with the statement: "So why is healthcare getting so expensive? According to an industry report, one of the main reasons is that those with insurance are picking up the tab for those without it."    

I will whole heartedly agree with the above statement, but so many people outside of the healthcare field do not realize all of the many pieces of the system that contribute to the problem. The largest problem of all is our culture in general. We are a society who needs instant gratification, can not wait for what we feel we deserve, and then when we don't get the answers we want fast enough, we sue for money to make us feel better.

Let me elaborate on that horrible run-on sentence. Last year, Massachusetts mandated that every single citizen carry their own health insurance. Unfortunately, Massachusetts is struggling with a shortage of doctors, according to the Massachusetts Medical Society . This means that even if people want a Primary Care Physician (PCP), they may have trouble finding one to accept them. Also, because of this said shortage, the PCPs we do have are so overwhelmed that they can not see their patients in the timely manner, as expected by our society, so instead of risk being sued, they send them to the ER for evaluation. Massachusetts is not the only state with a shortage of PCPs.

So the way I see it, the problem snowballs into one huge mess that is not fixed with one easy solution, such as universal health care. It will take years of small changes to the system and a lot of cultural growth before we can begin to untangle this mess we call health care. Patience, persistence, prevention, preparation and Primary Care are the five Ps I think we need to institute to save ourselves from healthcare doom.