Grand Rounds 3.19: Consumer-Driven Healthcare Edition
This is an excellent review and write-up on healthcare consumerism. Thanks for including me.
consumer-driven healthcare (CDHC) argue that it will give consumers more power to control their medical destinies and improve quality, some believe that it is being abused.
Some proponents of consumerism are opposed to single-payor healthcare. This is because they believe government-mandated coverage will wrest control from consumers
proponents of consumerism want to place more financial responsibility on patients because healthcare costs continue to rise. However, some are bemoaning the consequences of consumer-driven healthcare.
Boosters of consumer-driven healthcare say that patients cannot become true consumers without education and information.
Are patients really ready for consumer-driven healthcare? These medical bloggers suggest they are not.
For example, physicians are the most educated healthcare consumers you are likely to ever encounter. Yet, even Medpundit was a bit daunted by her recent visit to the emergency room on behalf of her son.
Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine shares the latest in her ongoing effort to become an insulin pumper. Tenderich is a very informed consumer, but is still stymied by insurance company-related bureaucracy and red tape.
In a post that’s not for the faint of heart (or, squeamish), Dr. G. C. George asks why are his Malaysian patients taking so long to seek treatment?
February 1st, 2007 at 4:35 pm
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February 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 pm
There’s never going to be a perfect system so you have to pick and choose. Government-driven health care is fine as long as doctor salaries stay static, or at least only match inflation.
But someone, somewhere, will want to be rewarded for being a better doctor. I already pay a lot in taxes so I would never argue over small increases that cover health care for poor people who cannot have their own, but increasingly you will have the best doctors ( not all, because most doctors care about people more than money, but medical school is expensive too ) migrating to private practice, much like existed in the mid-1800s. Back then, families had private physicians who only worked for a group of families. Society was not better off when the best doctors didn’t work in the system.
At least in the US, the government doesn’t handle many things better than private companies - though I agree some things should not be dollar-cost driven - I just have to remain skeptical they would get medical care coverage right.
Sorry for the long-winded response. This is out of my area of expertise but it is a good article and got me thinking. Scienceroll told us this was good stuff so I decided to pay a visit.
February 3rd, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Thanks Cash for visiting and commenting. There are many things that are still lacking in the Malaysian healthcare system. I agree that there is no perfect system. However, there must be transparency to whatever healthcare system that one adopts. I must agree that Scienceroll got me thinking about healthcare more! Hope to hear from you more!