Jennifer Ferries
Health Care Reform
Many Americans have turned their health perspective towards treating problems instead
of preventing them. The idea that we push more towards treating health problems, than
preventing them is costing Americans millions. We need to care more about individuals as a
whole, than just as a disease or as having a health problem.
The President should use existing authority to demand more physicians in America to
become generalists, practice Osteopathic medicine, and be primary care physicians. To demand
more physicians to do this he should create more jobs in these health care areas to make it easier
for physicians to occupy them. The president should also give a slight pay increase to these jobs
that will be promoting preventive care. By demanding more physicians in America to become
generalists, practice Osteopathic medicine, and be primary care physicians; the U.S would save
money in the long run because more citizens would be healthy to begin with and stay healthy.
Physicians play an important role in health care in America but currently there is a
misdistribution with “42 % of physicians work in primary care; the remaining 58% are
specialists. In other industrialized countries, only 25 to 50% of physicians are specialists
according to Shi and Singh. After analysis of this source, I believe their information supports my
health care reform and proves that there is high misdistribution meaning actions need to take
place to balance out this distribution and even push for more prevention. This source also states
that specialist’s leads to high health care costs, while generalists would lower these costs.
The cost our government is currently creating from paying primary and secondary
physicians is in an abnormally wide range. According to the Journal of Medicine, “Although
primary care compensation is experiencing growth, first-year specialty care compensation
remains higher, with median salary of $255,000 versus $175,000 for first-year primary care
placements.” My health care reform proposal would change costs dramatically in the health care
system. For each person that becomes a primary physician over a secondary physician the U.S
would save about $80,000, which could be used to provide more stress towards diet and
environmental factors that are affecting individuals. High costs that are associated with current
practice are related to our countries specialist-centered system. The American Medical Student
Association says that “Care provided by specialists is more expensive than similar care provided
by generalists.” With the reformed practice, primary care physicians are encouraged to provide
as much as the health care as possible, which will use less clinical resources which in turn uses
less money (Cram). Even with more costs going towards my proposal, there will still be a
smaller amount used than when there is an abundance of specialists.
Access in my reform proposal would change because people would feel better about
receiving medical care from their family doctors, and would feel healthy after utilization of stress
prevention and diet information. Instead of normally utilizing care only for the treatment of a
health problem, they would be preventing health problems and promoting a holistic approach to
health. Human utilization of health care for preventive care is going to be less if there are not
enough primary care physicians to support the community. A current delay associated with
current practice is that, “access for the disabled is hard to utilize because of the larger number of
specialists that are occupying rural and metropolitan areas (WHO). People feel less obligated to
access care if there are not enough primary care physicians.
My reform proposal would change quality measures in outcomes because there would be
more primary care practiced. The overall quality of patients’ lives would be dramatically
different because they will be treated and cared for as a whole person, instead of just a disease or
health problem. According to the American Medical Student Association, “Residents of lowincome areas in Washington, D.C., who often do not have access to primary care physicians, are
hospitalized three times more frequently than people in high-income communities for asthma,
diabetes, high blood pressure and many other conditions that can be treated with routine medical
care.” Quality measured in health outcomes would increase, because people would be able to live
a higher quality life from the medical care they would receive.
My reform proposal is more important than competing proposals because it would make
the overall health of United States citizens improve dramatically. It would also reduce the
amount of money paid out to physicians for unnecessary work, allow more individuals to have
access to primary care, and increase the quality of peoples life overall. Other people may believe
that my reform is less important than competing ideas because they assume the way health care
is right now, is functioning just fine and peoples health outcomes are decent with today’s care.
My argument to this is, wouldn’t a person rather eat healthy, live in a healthy environment, and
pay for a smaller amount of money for primary health care then paying thousands for treatment
for a health problem? Another question I propose is, would a person rather do primary treatment
and have screenings for cancer and detect it early, then spend the rest of their life trying to battle
cancer and figure out ways to cure it? I think everyone would agree with primary treatment, and
support my proposal that the President should use existing authority to demand more physicians
in America to become generalists, practice Osteopathic medicine, and be primary care
physicians.
Works Cited
American Medical Student Association. “Physician Supply and Distribution.” 2013.
Cram P, Ettinger WH Jr. “Generalists or specialists--who does it better?” MEDLINE: 08982759. Vol. 24, Issue 1. 1998.
Journal of Medicine. “Primary Care Physicians Pay Jumps 25% vs. Specialties 10%.” National
College of Physicians. ISSN: 2164-1056. 2012.
Shi, Leiyu, Singh, Douglas. “Delivering Health Care in America: A Systems Approach.” Jones
and Bartlett Learning, LLC. 2012.
World Health Organization. “General Healthcare.” 2012.