Atif Zafar Alejandro Badia, MD Gerry Savage, MBA Shanee Moret Remy Szykier Paola Sanmiguel, M.S. IDBT Kelly O’Neill Dr. Mike Roizen Marcos Levy Doug Crowe Michelle Trieste Kari Hess Prof. Dr. George Grant, Ph.D. , IMD, DHS, C.Chem, RM., M.Sc., M.Ed.

I thought we would look a little in depth at some of the issues that are overwhelming physicians and straining the finances of the “healthcare” system, and ultimately, who the beneficiaries are.

Let’s start with the patients. It can be said that a percentage of the US population is dependent on the pharmaceutical industry. As time goes on, we become less and less responsible for making our own decisions, instead abdicating to someone else to manage the consequences of our health choices. In this context, I believe insurance is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is necessary in case of catastrophic events when we really need help; on the other hand, it becomes a crutch, preventing us from putting in the hard work needed to take care of ourselves. When something goes wrong with our health, it’s too easy to seek an instant fix from a pharmaceutical solution, especially since we have insurance, rather than taking control of our actions with restraint and awareness regarding what we eat and how we behave. The privilege of freedom, coupled with the privilege of living in a capitalistic society where we have the means to do what we want, allows us to act without restraint, boundaries, or limits, indulging in every whim and desire. Self-control is more likely when we are fully accountable for our actions, without the possibility of external mitigation. In other words, we subconsciously take risks, knowing there is likely a solution if something goes wrong. We might not take such chances if there were no safety net.

Doctors are seeing 20 to 40 patients a day. Why? Because insurance and reimbursements are delayed, and electronic records take up literally half their time. Doctors are swamped with patients who often visit them with ailments that could have been avoided in the first place. Considering that approximately 70% of non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and many cancers, are preventable, not to mention that oxidative stress causes pain—one of the biggest reasons for doctor visits—we should understand that we are placing an additional burden on doctors, who end up spending time with patients seeking quick-fix prescriptions. Imagine seeing 30 people a day, each with health issues, while also relying on delayed payments from insurance companies. It’s no wonder there is such a high rate of doctor burnout. Moreover, doctors increasingly feel that they have less autonomy in making medical decisions due to guidelines, protocols, or hospital policies, which can be frustrating for those who value their clinical judgment.

The pharmaceutical industry has been brilliant in reversing the dynamic, making patients, influenced by skillful advertising, ask their doctors for specific drugs. This is often because they’ve seen idyllic ads on TV featuring patients happily managing ailments with a particular drug. The message “Ask your doctor about…” drives patients to request certain medications they believe address their problems after seeing these ads. It’s no coincidence that one in every five or six ads on TV is about a prescription drug. Media companies benefit from continuous revenue, and pharmaceutical companies see great returns on their ads, resulting in an overload of work for physicians. By contrast, in Europe, advertising for prescription drugs is illegal. Interestingly, much of the advertising in countries like Italy and France emphasizes the importance of food. Only two countries in the world, the US and New Zealand, allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.

• Average American hospital visits cost $1,660 per day, four times more than the rest of the world (Source: Health Affairs).
• 20 to 50% of scans performed in America should not have been done (Source: NY Times).
• The average cost of healthcare per person per year in the US is $8,000, compared to $3,000 in the developed world (Source: OECD.org).
• For the first time in the history of our country, life expectancy is going down (Source: New England Journal of Medicine).
• Approximately 20% of the population accounts for 80% of the costs (Source: AHRQ.gov).
• Between 2009 and 2010, approximately $1.1 billion was spent on lobbying Washington on behalf of healthcare (Source: The Center for Responsive Politics).
• In 2007, General Motors and Ford spent almost $1,500 on healthcare for every car they made, while BMW spent $450 and Honda $150 (Source: Century Foundation).
• Life expectancy in the US is lower than in most other high-income countries, with an average of 78.3 years, compared to 87.7 years in Italy. Switzerland and Japan also have significantly higher life expectancies than the US (Source: The Commonwealth Fund).

Adding to this, many doctors have sold their clinics to either hedge funds or financial groups, whose priority is obviously return on investment (ROI). The main focus is numbers: how many more patients and how much return on investment.

Reading the above, the situation doesn’t look rosy for where we are or where we are going. However, we can understand that where there are challenges, there are certainly opportunities and solutions.

Although stop smoking campagn cost a lot of money the return in saved lives and reduced medical bill was more than worth it.

A beacon of light is preventive medicine. What a novel idea. Do we really need to bankrupt our “healthcare” funds before doing something about it?

Granted, it requires leadership, vision, and a lot of courage to start moving in the direction of prevention. This has never taken off because it couldn’t be monetized. But now we are in a position to quantify many of these facts and see that it would behoove many people to seriously consider prevention.

I am working with an important hospital to help with a program of increasing health awareness through educated lifestyle choices and measurable differences over time.