Health reformers and deficit hawks can breathe easier. The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the country’s first National Prevention Strategy today.

In spite of missteps with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), this strategy places much more emphasis on disease prevention. The strategy will involve business leaders, health professionals, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and you. Everyone will play a role in changing the system.

The National Prevention Council will help shape these changes. The council’s 18 members include the Surgeon General and most of the president’s cabinet. Their mission is to develop integrated policies that improve health.

Advisers for the group include pediatricians, the director of the Rural Health Education Network, an integrative medicine professional, and a disability advocate.

Only political partisanship, corporate greed, and your indifference stand in the way of a better, less expensive health care system. Affordable health care is the basis of long-term financial health for your family and the nation.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

The results of my very unscientific survey are in. Next time I’ll try a poll instead.

Though the survey received more clicks than many other posts, only three people responded. The responses were mixed.

Jason Hartig, a caregiver, was never in favor of government-led solutions for problems in the health care industry. He predicted costs would be higher, which would decrease access to care, and that coverage would not improve. So far those predictions have come true for his family.

Hartig, who has private insurance, said his health care costs have increased $130 a month. The letter that announced the change said reform was a factor. The only solution he could find has decreased access to care for his family.

“Changed to affordable plan with a high deductible, which actually makes us less likely to seek health care services because they will not be covered until the deductible is met,” Hartig said.

He also said the family has the same access to preventative services as it did before the changes. Their access to natural care has not increased.

Hartig’s opinion of the changes is naturally negative. He says the law is “onerous on businesses, heavy handed on individuals, bureaucratic, and universal on all except those privileged organizations who get special exemptions.”

Karen Campbell was recently accepted for disability and now has access to Medicare after several years of paying Blue Cross for coverage she didn’t receive.

The other respondent, who chose to remain anonymous, is both a patient and the loved one of a patient. She and her husband have Medicare and TRICARE coverage for miliarty retirees. They haven’t noticed an impact on any aspect of their care.

© 2011, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

The main reason I waited so long was that I just didn’t trust the medical medical profession and didn’t feel like trying any more. Never mind that I gained some incredible insights into navigating the medical system during my previous trials. Never mind that my techniques were working toward the end of my last battle.

The other reason I waited was that we had been saving our tax refund for another purpose. I was determined not to spend it on anything else. Sometimes priorities need to change.

When I almost couldn’t move anymore, I asked a trusted friend about my options and hit the jackpot. A local nurse practitioner tested me for the one issue I never could get a doctor to explore, and she got to the root of the problem.

In just one month, some lingering issues I had learned to live with have almost disappeared. Imagine all the suffering I had experienced because I was carrying a grudge and I was trying to save money. I feel like wearing a “Kick Me” sign.

The next time you need medical care, don’t let anything stop you. You can’t do much in life without your health.

© 2008 – 2010, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

Reuters News Reported Monday that the majority of doctors in the U.S. would support a national health insurance plan. In a survey of more than 2000 doctors, 59 percent would support such legislation while only 32 percent would oppose it. That’s up from 49 percent versus 40 percent in 2002. None of the presidential candidates has presented a plan for national health insurance.

Though I haven’t conducted a local survey, I know that my personal physician believes our health care system will collapse without national health insurance. More and more of his patients can’t afford insurance premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. I am among that number.

For more about the survey, visit Reuters News.

—-
Jacqueline L. Jones is author of Unmasking a Diagnosis: How to get Help for a Confusing Chronic Illness Without Filing for Bankruptcy. The book is available through Lulu.com and will be available early next year through Amazon.com and other online book retailers.

Join the WordPress Revolution!

© 2008 – 2010, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

The evidence is clear. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), people with chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease account for more than 75% of the nation’s $1.4 trillion in medical care costs each year. That figure could jump 42 percent by 2023, according to an Oct. 2007 report by the Milken Institute, a think tank in Santa Monica, Calif.

As the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), and practitioners in emerging and ancient disciplines report positive results in fighting these illnesses, the path to reducing health care costs seems clear. Equal access to disease prevention services and effective natural treatments could reduce costs for all.

You wonder aloud if we can afford to increase entitlements. The government is so inefficient, you protest. Let’s discuss why these concerns are unfounded.

Medicare and Medicaid are headed for disaster. The cost of treating advanced chronic illness in the aging baby-boom generation is a major cause. But many chronic ailments can be prevented through lifestyle changes. As early as 1949, The Commision on Chronic Illness warned of the costs of delaying treatment until the advanced stages.

Public health campaigns are sounding the alarm, but the majority of Americans still look to their physicians for specific advice. According to IFM, the majority of mainstream medicine is based on acute care and not on correcting the underlying causes of disease.

By training physicians to detect these causes, and paying lifestyle educators such as nutritionists and exercise physiologists to teach patients how to reverse these causes through instruction tailored to their needs and learning styles, we should see a rapid decrease in lifestyle-related diseases and, thus, realize a dramatic savings in health care costs for individuals, businesses, and the government. The Milken Institute estimates that just by lowering the rates of obesity, which leads to diabetes, heart disease, and other ailments, we could see productivity gains of $254 billion and avoid $60 billion in treatment expenditures per year.

But what about government inefficiency? Inefficiency in health care is not limited to government programs. An Institute of Medicine report in 1999 titled “To Err is Human” estimated that avoidable errors in hospitals throughout the country were killing 44,000 to 98,000 Americans a year. They were injuring thousands more.

According to a Feb. 7, 2005 report by the Newshour on PBS, the Veterans Administration (VA) ran one of the most efficient health care systems in the country before its recent problems with handling the influx of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The VA has taken the lead in reducing common medical mistakes by developing checklists for routine procedures, requiring reports on medical mistakes, investigating their causes, developing strategies to prevent repetition of those mistakes, and computerizing health records and prescriptions.

The cost of all these changes except the electronic records system totaled ten cents for every $100 spent on medical care. Just think of the huge savings from reductions in both malpractice insurance premiums and lengthy stays caused by mistakes.

By providing equal access to disease prevention and proven natural treatments, and reducing preventable medical mistakes in the health care system, the government should be able to afford the cost of health care for all U.S. citizens.

© 2008 – 2012, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

In our area, AAA provides respite and homemaking services and asses charges on a sliding scale according to the total household income. They also provide Meals on Wheels for seniors whose incomes are below a certain level. For more information, visit the Website of the National Assocation of Area Agencies on Aging.

The National Family Caregivers Association also maintains a Website that that lists extensive resources, including sources of respite care. The organization conducts workshops and sponsors the Caregiver Community Action Network (CCAN) of local volunteers who may be able to give you personal guidance.

The local or regional chapter of the support group for your loved one’s illness also may provide help. Our regional office of the Alzheimer’s Association pays for a few days of adult day care. That brief respite may provide enough time to search for a long-term solution. The Alzheimer’s Association also maintains an extensive library of resources on caregiving and sponsors the Safe Return program, which provides IDs so you and your loved one can be identified if you become incapacitated while on an outing with them or your loved wanders away.

My last post featured Medicare as a source of short-term help. My next post will address often overlooked sources of help that are closer than you think.

© 2007 – 2010, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

Patients often give up on getting diagnosed and treated for verifiable illnesses after wasting several years and thousands of dollars searching for answers. They resort to unsupervised self-treatment, with mixed results, or ignore their problems until a crisis develops.

“Because of the widespread use of CAM by patients, and the growing scientific evidence that certain CAM therapies are more effective than orthodox alternatives, CAM education must be integrated into medical education in allopathic and osteopathic schools in the near future,” according to the American Medical Student (AMSA) Foundation Report on Educational Development for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (EDCAM).

The future is here!

Unmasking a Diagnosis will teach you how you can receive a
proper diagnosis and effective treatments from knowledgeable medical professionals in your area–without depleting your life savings.

What You Will Learn

• Why self-diagnosis and unsupervised self-treatment can be dangerous–physically, financially, and legally
  
• How to save time and money while getting the help you need
• How to find a professional who is familiar with your symptoms and illness
  
• How to communicate with professionals to get to the root of your problem(s)
• Shortcuts for personal research that will empower you to deal with your illness
• Creative ways to pay for medical services

Features

• Lists of the best types of professionals to consult
• Web sites about complementary and alternative medicine
• Action checklists

Buy now!

© 2007 – 2010, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.