Prevention Versus Treatment

Seven in ten deaths in the United States, are attributable to chronic disease (“Leading Causes” 1). These diseases are not on account of bacteria or viruses, which could be treated with an appropriate prescription or vaccine. Chronic conditions are developed through unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors such as a lack of exercise, poor nutrition, poor sleeping habits, and substance use (e.g. tobacco). Consequently, seven in ten of every death can be prevented with changes in lifestyle. The CDC states that these conditions, “are among the most common, costly, and preventable of all health problems” (“Chronic Disease” 1). Although these conditions have clear and definite causes (knowing the exact reason and “cure” for them), they are becoming more prevalent rather than domesticated. According to Wu and Green, “Between 2000 and 2030 the number of Americans with chronic conditions will increase by 37 percent, an increase of 46 million people” (1). This increase comes with an increase in health care costs: the CDC reported that the U.S. spent three trillion dollars on health care in 2014 (“Health Expenditures” 1). 86% of these costs was associated with these conditions (“Prevention” 1). Despite there being a range of causes of why patients make these choices, one issue that may be less familiar to others is the lack of knowledge in preventative medicine among health care professionals. Current training standards are not adequately educating or equipping health care professionals

The movie fire escape emphasizes that America has the most expensive health care system in the world but is not one of the best in regards to healthcare outcomes and life expectancy. It spends more than what the whole world all together spends on pharmaceutical industry. 75% of the 2.7 trillion dollars were spent on treating preventable diseases which indicate that US health care is more focused towards disease management than prevention. The movie makes a point that there are frequent readmissions and 80% of health care budget goes towards these 20% patients who are frequently readmitted to the hospital due to an existing chronic condition. Health care professionals are paid on the basis of number of procedures carried out on the patient rather than their health outcome. So the focus is not on curing the disease by eliminating the risk factors but merely managing the disease and looking for quick fixes. That is how patients want it too. They want to be cured right away with a pill or surgery but are not really interested in learning the long term solutions and preventative measures.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This saying goes to show that investing in preventative care is the only way to effectively reform health care plans in America. It is no secret that there are many issues facing health care; however, the most important issue seems to be the lack of funding for preventative care. Redistributing health care related funds into areas like public health and preventative medicine can increase the overall quality of life for patients. If health care reform revolves around preventative medicine, then America’s standard of health will rise. A healthier society will lessen the demand for expensive life-saving surgeries, thus decreasing the overall cost of health care. The overall solution for this issue would be to set a realistic health care budget that correlates to the United States’ current standard of health, thus majority of the budget focuses on preventative medicine.

There is broad evidence that Americans often do not get the care they need even though the United States spends more money per person on health care than any other nation in the world. Preventive care is underutilized, resulting in higher spending on complex, advanced diseases. Patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes all too often do not receive proven and effective treatments such as drug therapies or self management services to help them more effectively manage their conditions.

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a “data-driven and structured procedure for analyzing students’ learning problems” (Friend 49). The purpose of RtI is to use a systematic approach of increasing interventions for students in order to determine if a student has a learning disability. IRtI is a great program for school to use to help students but it is not mandated by IDEA.

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), informally referred as Obama Care, is a United States federal statue signed into by law by president Barak Obama on March 23, 2010”( Laxmaiah MAnchikanti,2012). Obama care assures they will provide insurance for everyone, with improvements in quality of and reduction in the cost of health care, opponents criticize it as being a massive bureaucracy laden with penalties and taxes that will ultimately eliminate personal medicine and individual practices (Laxmaiah Manchikanti, 2012). Based on these 2 years since 2010, the prognostics for interventional pain management is unclear. They may provide insurance for everyone but with cuts in Medicare to fund Obama Care. Practically limiting expansions on Medicaid

The restrictions on health care services and reimbursements that are intended to reduce health care cost by discouraging individuals from using care inappropriately. The discouragements of inappropriate care have done nothing else but affect the quality of care that patients receive and their health. It is amazing when people’s freedom of choices in the physician and health plans they want becomes limited to them it can ultimately reduce their health. (JAMA.2001; pg. 285:2622-2628)

If the value of preventative care is evaluated solely on cost versus return, health economists argue that all preventative services are not necessarily cost effective. Cohen, Neumann, &

(Weinstein, 2008)” The fear of being sued that is driving physicians to defensive medicine is dramatically increasing healthcare cost and threatens the success of health reform efforts,” says Dr. Manish Sethi, a researcher with the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. (Goodnough, 2009)

There is a range of prevention and intervention strategies that schools can out in place to promote and maintain student engagement in the mainstream school setting where possible. The strategies are outlined in depth in the Student Engagement Policy Guidelines and they include some of the following:

This link describes the importance of clinicians to provide culturally and sensitive services to diverse populations

In our first week of class, we have looked at the first three chapters in, Health Care Delivery in the United States. The first chapter talks about how the health care system has moved from a mindset of restoring a person’s health, into the phase of preventative medicine, which we see now. This has resulted from measurement of how the health care system is working, and with research looking at patients throughout the years. We now know, that any problem, disease, or condition, should be treated early or prevented if possible. The health care system has been working with public education to make citizens aware of what tests and preventative programs will be of assistance to them. (Knickman & Kovner, A., 2015).

American’s have an inherent distrust of the service industry, healthcare included. Out of fear of malpractice lawsuits, many physicians and healthcare providers to practice often unnecessary and expensive defensive medicine. This drives up costs without the supporting quality outcomes.

Juveniles across the country have many issues in today’s society however; the issues that are at hand can be prevented if the parents or guardians have control over that certain juvenile. If that parent doesn’t have control of that teen there are certain places in which the parents can reach out to and get help dealing with the issues. But when it comes to parenting just because you don’t have control over that teen at that moment doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent because teens these days are dealing with issues such as high school popularity to even the issue of

I do not think we should be more concerned with the prevention of illness, but I do think that we need to incorporate it when we are treating patients. I believe if we educate the patients on how to prevent the illness for instance, if they are overweight and being treated for Diabetes, we need to explain to them what steps they can take to cure this illness. Also, treatment by itself is not a cure all but a very important part along with prevention in helping patients gets better especially since most health insurance companies offer classes and some will give you a monetary reward if you successfully complete the program. For instance, Blue Cross offers a program that will reimburse you at the end of the year when you complete a certain amount