health care

Well, I'm working in the field of health care, and it's pretty clear that this is going to be one of the major problems in the 21st century for the modern world. Not that people are getting sick and dying because that's always the case, and that's always getting better for the most part with advances in medicine. No, I'm talking about trying to pay for all the health care. Since our demographics are changing (with aging baby boomers, and longer lives in general, and lower birth rates), our health care budget is just going to keep expanding to ridiculous levels... So what's the solution?

Well, here's a partial list that I've come up with (I realize that this is probably nothing original):

1. more emphasis (ie: money) on preventive care (vaccines, sanitation, health education, safe sex, taking care of the environment and the atmosphere, etc.)

2. contined privatization of the health care system (because the government is always less efficient than private companies, in my opinion)

3. tort reform (I realize that this is a controversial issue, but the fact that lawyers can bring huge rewards for doctor 'errors' in malpractice suits leads to a significant increase in health care costs. I'm sure that if doctors weren't so worried about lawsuits all the time, they would cut down on their use of radiological and other tests, and malpractice insurance costs would go down, among other things.)

4. patient education (large numbers of patients grossly misuse health care resources, like using the emergency room for non-emergency conditions instead of going to their general family doctor)

5. well I doubt that there is any way to stop health care costs from significantly rising in the future, but hopefully the powers that be (and each of us) can do a little something to help out