Health Care

It occurs to me that the true crisis in health care today has little to do with money and even less to do with access as it does to education. People are just unaware of what is available to them in health care. We need to help them learn what can be available to them. People are also unaware of who the important players are in health care. The most important decision-making person on the health care team is the patient. No one can do for or to them anything that they did not give consent for unless in a life threatening situation. People need to educate themselves about their own health conditions, about their insurance coverage, about the health care available to them, about who everyone is that takes care of them (what they are supposed to do, what they cannot do, etc.). We have gone way too long just depending on health care providers to take care of them. Because of shortages (of funds and nurses and medications and doctors and time and whatever else is in short supply), we have to take charge of our own wellness and health care. I remember a time when, if the doctor said we needed to have this surgery or that procedure, the first question the patient would ask was, "How much will that cost?" That question almost never even comes up these days. The physician says, instead, "We will submit this to your insurance for approval and let you know when we can schedule it." Patients used to ask, "Do I really need to have that done? Is there something else that we could do?" Instead, we now say, "Whatever you say Doctor." And patients used to be actively involved in the plan of care. Now we are passive about what is done to us. Again, education is what is needed. People need to be empowered to become actively involved in all of the diagnostics, treatments, interventions and planning for their health care. Want a good example? Look at the parents of a young child with a terminal of life-threatening illness. It isn't long before that parent has an enviable knowledge base about the disease process, prognosis, treatment options, treatment reactions, experimental treatments available, etc. We should ALL be so involved in our own healthcare. Education - that's what we need to start demanding from the health care industry. Ask a nurse - they are GREAT educators!