Health and the business of health care.

Canadian health officials would like to say their business is taking care of the public health in contrast to the American system of running health care primarily as a business. This is actually a famous metaphor Canadians would like to be proud of. In both instances, it is easier said than done.

While both systems of running health care have their pros and cons, there is an urgent need to take the issue very seriously to resolve the health care inefficiencies in he US once and for all. The United States is obviously a more complex society compared to the 30 or so million population of Canada. As such, it needs to resolve its health care problems in its own unique way. That said, it should be underscored that emulating the Canadian system shouldn't necessarily be incoherent to the American way of life. In most cases it would have a positive outcome in a long run. This can be easily proven by the fact that other diverse nations like Brazil transformed health care to their advantage while at the same time applying a universal health service for the whole population.

Things have dramatically changed in the contemporary world as concerns like, "socialized medicine slowing down the advancement of medical technology" seem to have retired with the collapse of the Soviet style communism. Most countries are capable of running medical innovations because of the profitable outlook of free universal health care in the long run. The profits mainly come from savings from the excesses by revolutionizing the systems of keeping medical records and improving the early interventions on chronic diseases. Medical innovation can be kept at least at the same pace by putting aside a separate budget for it. NASA is a good example in this regard.

The other concern about the so called socialized medicine is the longer waiting period for patients that need transplants and costly operations. In a recent successful civil suit against the Canadian government, this issue became a public debate which persuaded the system to allow running private clinics where needed to meet the needs for those who can afford and willing to pay their way out. Here in the US there is a full fledged well functioning private health care that will not be tampered for those who can afford and are satisfied with it(President Obama assured in his various speeches in the health care debates).

Health care as we know it encompasses a smaller affinity than it used to be thanks to the growing fields of alternative medicines. Alternative medicine may be the choice that will definitely fill the gap which is being left out by the conventional health care due to its chemical and gadget oriented ways of healing patients. The alternative choice of health care as we know it focuses on the natural ways of maintaining health and fitness with little or no side effects. This field has grown tremendously in the last decades due to the fact that more people are inquiring into second opinions and alternative approaches to cure chronic illnesses. In some ways the price tag on health care has encouraged increased consultations to look into the effectiveness of the historic Oriental and African cultures and practices. Just as America is a bastion of ethnic foods from all over the world, medical practices can also transform into ethnic and traditional varieties. This is of course how the system practically works. While the exhausted and in many ways increasingly expensive health care system is doing the same thing over and over again, it is far from transforming itself into all inclusive health service.

Americans pay more for health care each year but get less coverage and fewer services for the premiums they pay. Health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2000, a rate three times faster than wages, yet rising premiums are only one of the ways families shoulder the burden of rising health care costs.

www.healthreform.gov

The way the American health care has been running helped in some ways in an unexpected direction to encourage people to look into the natural option. The good thing about this evolving feature is that the stubborn treatment of its patients by the conventional method of health care through its phony and exhausted system of health insurance business has helped create a new competition that may eventually help people have a freedom of choice. So, is the system going to get a knee jerk reaction to save itself from the inevitable doom? Is this why there is more talk about insuring the uninsured? Why is there then all of a sudden the question about who will pay for it? Who has been paying for the overwhelming majority of the population that is in the position to afford to pay without losing its mortgage? Now why is it difficult to pay for the estimated 45 million who are not insured at this moment? They do not add up to even a fifth of the population. They are actually the ones that drain the health care budget by showing up to the hospitals only when it is an emergency situation. This is when it winds up costing the most to treat. The intention here is not to be against the majority of Americans who are happy with their insurance plan; nor is it intended to persuade those who do not want to involve themselves with visiting a doctor unless they are terribly sick. It is about giving the inalienable right for people who want the health care option open for all unless there is an officially accepted categorization of those who deserve a health care plan and those who do not; in which case there is a flagrant violation of the fundamental human right to stay healthy. In my opinion, health care needs to cover the wider scope of prevention and treatment by extending its capacity with researches that include the alternative methods of health maintenance.