No one is happy with their current health care benefits (except, perhaps, Congress who have blessed themselves with lavishly complete medical benefit plans,) but according to a recent article in AARP magazine, we in the US are now spending about $8000 per person per year and we’re getting crappy results for that exorbitant investment. Our hospitals are suffering, our doctors aren’t happy and patients are fearful and stressed-out and over-medicated. The universal health care models in Europe are spending approximately half that much and are getting better results. A recent study revealed that three decades ago, 7% of American corporate profits went towards health care costs and now the average is 50%! It’s amazing that anyone is attached to the status quo, but we need only see who is struggling against of health-care reform to know who is making money off the pain. There are powerful entities in this country who are invested in keeping people passive, unwell and prescribed-to.

Here’s the good news: the combination of a financial crisis and a health care crisis is a window of opportunity. There is movability, motivation and consensus that we need change, and so it is finally, finally actually happening. I was very pleased recently to hear President Obama saying that one of the real strategies to close the huge gap in Medicare funds and the projected need by 2050 (when I will be 80 years old) was prevention– that we will endeavor to not develop diseases in order to help create a sustainable Medicare system. Hooray! I had always just figured it would collapse long before then. Now I have hope. We are being called as citizens to protect the viability of our future health care system by staying healthy.

Results based model

The Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic and the Geisinger Health System  have already changed the way they do business. Instead of paying doctors for the number of patients they can crank through, they are now paid by the improved health results they achieve in each patient! Their surgeries come with a warranty! When you think that 18% of medicare patients who go into a hospital return within 30 days of their visit, you can see why this makes sense. Would you tolerate those horrible odds from an overpriced car repair shop? Changing how care is incentivised– as in, how the money flows– is crucial to changing the fundamentals of this system.

There is a movement towards “patient-centered care” which a shift towards prevention, accountability and patient empowerment. It’s only in the early stages, but this is the future of health care. It requires a real relationship between patient and physician, one that’s beyond the 7 minute average dispassionate catch-up-then-prescription that we have had.  One where the medical practices are reimbursed based on their ability to meet a checklist of quality measures and on their results. Cool!

It’s expensive to change. It always is. It’ll require investment to shift health care models, but the payback will be in lower costs later, when complications and relapses are averted.

Patient Empowerment

This is what I’m most interested in. I am especially interested in empowering women with regards to their health. This is true all over the world:  You empower a woman, you strengthen the family and the whole village. That’s one of the reasons I have become involved with the Midcoast Women’s Health Conference. Being sick is scary. I’ve done it.  It feels good to come out of it. It’s really exciting to watch a person start to feel their own power to heal and feel good.

This conference will have 32 presenters and 50 exhibitors, representing the whole spectrum of the medical/healing community. Last year we found a real sense of solidarity between the conventional medical community and the alternative practitioners. Everyone wants change. Everyone wants to see better results. It’s starting to become obvious that we need to merge the advanced technology of the acute care model with the wisdom and efficacy of complementary medicine to have a more complete model of health care. We need to emphasize prevention and offer information, inspiration and compassionate guidance to people– especially to women who make most of the health care decisions for their whole families.

That’s why this conference’s ultimate goal is to create a Learning Center in the midcoast area that will become a resource to all people, regardless of whether they have insurance or not. It will provide access to the internet for self-directed research, access to a certified Health Educator and most importantly, it will require a person to proactively choose the elements of their personal health care plan.

What that means is that in the future model of health care, being passive isn’t one of the choices. You will have a menu of options and be required to choose what you are drawn to in order to proceed. Perhaps it’s pharmaceutical relief. Perhaps it’s acupuncture or physical therapy or chiropractic or holistic nutrition or, most likely, some combination. By proactively choosing your modalities, you are intrinsically more likely to heal and to benefit.

Nutrition is the Cornerstone of Prevention

The theme of this year’s conference is Nutrition for a Healthy Heart, Body, Mind and Spirit. Everyone’s journey towards eating better is different, but it’s clear that you can’t embark on a prevention plan while eating lots of donuts and soda. Our food supply is frankly dangerous and it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s killing people early. It will kill our kids early if we put no attention to it (because the food marketers are putting LOTS of their attention to it and are trying to drown out your parental common sense.)

So empowerment for everyone means looking behind the curtain at the “wizard” and beginning to make your own, independent choices about what nourishes you. Our context is so extremely skewed in the modern era that when I hear someone say “We eat pretty well,” I know they have work to do. EVERYONE needs to put attention onto their food choices. It doesn’t even count as a modality in my book, it is so fundamental.

System Change, Personal Change

I feel strongly that change needs to start right here, right now, with me. And you. The system will change when we private citizens push it to the tipping point with our personal choices. Come to the conference to fertilize your thinking, catalyze your healing and connect with others who are aiming for the tipping point. It’s Friday and Saturday May 15th and 16th at Point Lookout in Northport off Route 1. It’s only $15 for two whole days of incredible programming!

President Obama might say “Ask not what your health care system can do for you, but what you can do for your health care system.”
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