Healthcare in Crisis

It's time to rethink our paradigm of healthcare delivery to achieve sustainable health.

The landscape of healthcare in the modern West is changing. It has become more and more clear over time that the medical model we have is no longer sustainable. The current system was built on a foundation of primarily treating disease with pharmaceuticals and taking a reactive approach rather than focusing on proactive prevention, and this antiquated structure is now plagued by out-of-control costs, poor outcomes, and growing corruption and compromise.

The traditional model of modern medicine stands on the edge of a knife, facing potential collapse, and it is crucial that we reevaluate this approach to health and disease. The conventional approach to health promotion and addressing chronic disease is not working. We need to embrace innovative modes of care such as functional medicine (a focus on root cause) with an emphasis on lifestyle, integrating the best of allopathy (conventional methods) and naturopathy (natural and herbal remedies) within delivery models of care that emphasize direct relationships between people and their healthcare practitioners.

High Costs

Of the many glaring issues within the medical model of healthcare, the rising cost of care sits as one of the more important considerations. From everyday routine check-ups to surgery or hospitalization, medical expenses have been spiraling out of control for several decades. This has left many people completely dependent on using health insurance, or otherwise facing extreme debt. According to a study published in The New York Times by Elizabeth Rosenthal, the US healthcare system is responsible for a massive $2.7 trillion medical bill - a figure that continues to climb with each passing year.

This raises the question of what is driving healthcare costs so high. The answer is found in looking at two important topics: inefficiency of care, and profit-driven decision making. Pharmaceutical companies are well known to raise prices for essential medications, while insurance companies influence care in ways that often prioritize profits over patient needs. Administrative overhead costs within bloated medical systems add layers upon layers of complexity and expense. The result is that millions of people are left struggling to afford the health support they need, which then leads to significant consequences for both their physical and financial health.

Poor Outcomes

Despite pouring tons of money into our current medical system, the United States does not see a corresponding level of improved health outcomes in comparison to other developed nations. In fact, according to a Time article titled "The Collapse of the U.S. Health-Care System Is Coming," the US healthcare system now faces a risk of total failure due to its inability to generate significant improvements in results. Many chronic health problems such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease continue to be widely prevalent in our society, leading to a very significant negative impact on quality of life and an increased cost of healthcare.

The establishment of a “sick care” model (one where health systems treat illness reactively rather than taking a prevention approach), has been a driving force to this concerning trend. Instead of setting the priority on prevention and health promotion, our system often idly waits until people are already sick before providing intervention. This approach to primarily focusing on illness results in poor health outcomes, but also places a huge burden on the system in general, moving further forward on an unsustainable path.

Informed Consent

Another critical consideration that poses a significant threat to safe, high-quality patient care is the lack of complete informed consent. As it is described in the article "The Era of Informed Consent is Over", people are infrequently provided with information about all of the risks, benefits, and alternatives of the medical treatments that are recommended to them. Conversely, the focus is often exclusively on potential benefits, while glossing over risks, leading to significant increased risk of potential harm.

This lack of full transparency of the potential risks associated with a medical intervention not only undermines an individual’s right to autonomy, but it also perpetuates the cycle of employing treatments that may be ineffective, or even harmful. When people aren’t provided with a complete explanation of all the available options, they are then prevented from making a truly informed decision about their treatment. This tendency leaves people vulnerable to accepting medication or other treatments that may do more harm than good.

Addressing this issue is critically important if we want to have a system of health that is sustainable over the long term. We need healthcare providers to put patient education and engagement first, ensuring that they are fully informed about their various options, including all risks, benefits, and alternatives. When people are empowered to be active participants in decision making around their care, this fosters trust, improves outcomes, and builds a structure of healthcare that can last for generations.

Corruption

The stated mission of many healthcare organizations is often supposedly oriented towards healing and compassion, but beneath the surface of many of the problems outline above, there is unfortunately found a thread of corruption. The first rule of a corporation is to perpetuate itself. Thus, many pharmaceutical companies have been known to engage in price gouging and various medical groups often place a priority on profits over the well-being of their patients. Furthermore, special interests often influence health policy, resulting in decisions that do not put people first. The rampant prescribing of opioid medications over recent decades serves as a grave reminder of the devastating harm that comes with such corruption, with these medications flooding the market in the pursuit of profits.

Compounding the problem even further, the influence of money in politics heavily outweighs the public good. There are many well organized and highly funded efforts by pharmaceutical and insurance companies to influence laws in ways that will benefit their bottom line, even if it means doing so at the increased risk of patient harm. The result of this is that we have a medical system that is riddled with conflicts of interest, which worsen health outcomes and erode the trust of the public.

The FLEXNER report

Early in the 20th century, there was a significant shift in healthcare. Where there once had been a diverse range of treatments including nutrition and herbal remedies, there occurred a distinct pivot towards a focus primarily on pharmaceuticals. This transformation of healthcare was largely brought about by a study published in 1910, called the Flexner Report. This goal of this report was to standardize medical education in the United States, effectively eliminating any schools that did not follow a particular and uniform model of training. As described in the article "The Flexner Report and the Rise of Big Pharma", the report led to the closure of many medical schools that had embraced other modes and approaches to health, favoring instead schools that adhered to a medical curriculum of pharmacology and interventions.

The effects of the Flexner report sent ripples far and wide. This effectively began an era of healthcare that is heavily dominated by pharmaceutical companies and their products, rather than one that has its foundation in traditional & herbal medicine, nutritional therapy, and taking a holistic (whole body) approach. Once medical education had essentially been made uniform in this new model, there began to be a progressive narrowing of perspectives within healthcare practice. Any traditional methods were labeled as “alternative”, effectively relegating herbal/natural remedies to the sidelines. This shift towards the use of pharmaceuticals was further propelled by the ever-growing influence of “big pharma”, which funneled its enormous profits into the development and marketing of more and more synthetic drugs, advertising them as the primary means of treatment.

Fast forward 115 years, and the current landscape is such that the majority of Westerners have developed an ever-increasing reliance on pharmaceutical interventions. It’s how we have been trained. Holistic and natural approaches to health are either forgotten or ignored. While there is no doubt that advances in health science, including the development of many medications have provided significant advancement and some improvements in quality of life, there remain significant and growing concerns of safety, effectiveness, and long-term consequences with their use. Now more than ever, many are beginning to recognize how important it is to integrate diverse modes of care together to rebuild a system that is truly holistic and sustainable.

A Solution

Despite living in such a time where the landscape of healthcare is so full of chaos and uncertainty, there is hope for a better way. There are options which can promote and sustain a safer and more lasting approach to health. Functional medicine is an approach to health that focuses on identifying and addressing the root causes of disease, and provides another option, rather than simply treating or managing symptoms. When taking the approach of addressing underlying causes of health problems, people are empowered to regain influence over their own health and well-being, which leads to improved outcomes, reduction in costs, and freedom from lifelong use or dependence on pharmaceuticals. One of the most important things an individual can do to impact their health is to engage in models of healthcare that truly foster a root-cause approach.

A second, and equally important consideration in health promotion and disease prevention is to encourage a direct-care model relationship between patients and practitioners, free from the influence of financial interests or corporate corruption which is so often found in traditional insurance models. By removing the middlemen of insurance companies or bureaucracies, and eliminating the need for costly insurance plans, these types of approaches can promote comprehensive primary care which can offer personally tailored services at an affordable price. A direct relationship between a patient and their practitioner fosters trust, improves access to care, has been shown to reduce overall costs and improve outcomes of care, and allows for a partnership focused on personalized treatment plans which are customized to individual needs.

Conclusion

The model of healthcare we have is no longer sustainable in its current form. It has long since been compromised by high costs, poor outcomes, and corruption, all of which undermine the ultimate goal of healthcare - to live with optimal health, free of chronic disease. By embracing the solutions described above, with a focus on integrating a root cause approach along with the best of modern methods, healthcare can once again be sustainable and whole. It is time to prioritize prevention over treatment, people over profits, and well-being over wealth.

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