How might an alternative approach to health care aid in decreasing overall healthcare costs?

The solution to the health abuse crisis is NOT more medications, more hospitals, more money being thrown at drug companies, and more politicians getting their hands in the big pile of money being given to them by drug companies.

The real answer is to realize that our agricultural system is broken badly, the food distribution and processed food manufacturers are focused on PROFIT, not health, and our medical system is geared to treating symptoms, not root causes. There is a very good reason that in 1905, the CDC reported that less than 5% of ALL Americans were chronically ill and then in 2005, the same CDC reported that over 53% of ALL Americans are chronically ill. And that is just the reported cases.

America uses 70% of all the drugs being produced and we have spent billions of dollars on very BAD SCIENCE in an effort to find the magic pill to solve medical problems. In fact, CANCER is on the increase and we have been trying to solve that problem for over 100 years. When the politicians got involved in 1946 and Congress declared that only chemotherapy, radiation and surgery were accepted methods of dealing with cancer, it put us on a tremendous spending spree that the world has never seen and the results are disastrous. Only 2% to 3% of cancer patients that get treated end up surviving more than 5 years. Medical science as we know it has failed us. Our life expectancies are less than 12 other countries. The number one country in the world with the longest life expectancies do not use allopathic medicine with drugs. Macau, China uses traditional Chinese medicine and they have a life expectancy of 84.4 years. So it's not more drugs that will solve the problem. Look at "Jerry's kids." Billions of dollars have been spent over 53 years of research and they are still asking for more money and not getting any results.

The solution is to clean up the agricultural industry. Get rid of Genetic engineering that is damaging a huge number of Americans each day, move to ALL organic farming and stop the pesticide rampage and the destruction of our soils with chemical fertilizers. Demand local distribution of local crops. Demand that we get rid of GRAIN feeding animals and get back to sustainable ranching with grass fed animals. Let's do what will net us real health instead of this "MAKE BELIEVE HEALTH" that is being promoted everywhere fueled by GREED and AVARICE. Make our politicians responsible to people other than the BIG corporations like Monsanto that are paying huge sums of money to politicians to keep their agendas in the forefront of our laws.

To continue spending more and more on worthless technology that is NOT WORKING and to hear day in and day out how wonderful our medical system is makes me realize that marketing and indoctrination is working. It needs to stop, then we can get down to what really works and the truth.

good luck to you

Unfortunately, no, that would not work. The idea behind health care insurance is that the company will pay any and all medical costs, which could run into the tens or hundreds of thousands, based on a monthly premium (the fee for insurance). They are able to pay the cost because only a small number of the people they insure take advantage of the benefits each month. In other words, although ten thousand people might be paying a $200 premium for a total revenue of $2,000,000, only a thousand of those people will submit a claim that month, which would cost them anywhere from half to three quarters of the money they've collected. What that means is that the people paying $200 are getting an average of $2,000 in medical benefits, and the company is making a profit of about $500,000 with which they pay for employees, office space, supplies, transportation, etc. Without the insurance company, those same people who filed insurance claims would be paying ten times as much. Although the number of people is much greater and the amount of benefits can be much larger, its all a numbers game that the insurance companies have researched, and they are able to provide for all benefits they cover. There is no cheaper way of handling the cost of medical care, or the government wouldn't be trying to find a way to pay for the insurance themselves.

There are some great answers already posted. As for me, I've avoided many doctor appointments (and some dental appointments) and phamaceutical medicines by using certain vitamins, raw local honey, and raw garlic. At other times, using Homeopathic remedies.

All these efforts are great and less expensive and things such as these will more likely stay that way if mainstream medicine does not get a hold of it. That is one reason I don't really care if they think it is worthless. Let them believe that.

At least one study was performed using chiropractic physicians as primary gatekeepers of a managed care system for a period of months, and results compared to those of MDs and DOs

Compared to patients who saw medical primary care providers (PCPs), those who saw chiropractic PCPs experienced the following:

* Hospital admissions decreased by 43%.

* Hospital days decreased by 58.4%.

* Average length of hospital stay decreased by 23.8%.

* Outpatient surgical cases decreased by 43.2%.

* Pharmaceutical usage decreased by 51.8%.

Contrary to what one responder says, clinical outcomes were improved overall, and patient satisfaction was almost 3TIMES GREATER with a chiropractor (DC) as gatekeeper.

Possibly this could be extended to other well trained CAM providers as well, studies are being designed now to test this with naturopaths (NDs), etc.

Drugs and surgery are just not the best first line care, regardless of how loudly their proponents like to squawk.

there is no solution...only intelligent choices....change your mind to good food regime....add supplements of quality <nutrilite example>.keep yr nightshades low and if you drink or smoke >>>just scale it down....

you will find a new way of recognizing your body, your mind will also connect with our incredible "support" system...instead of pharmacy hocus pocus and drug company "fix it".

>>>exercise and not killer gym or mind numbing jogging.

step by step.

yrs,

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The REAL question is:

Are we willing to decrease healthcare costs if it means decreased quality of care? (which will oh so definitely happen)