Truly Curing the Healthcare Crisis

Further to the last post…some 16 years after writing it…with that time to contemplate on what I wrote then…but still believing that the basis is true…I submit the following:

Incentives ultimately drive behavior. If you don’t believe that, go read Human Action by B. F. Skinner. Any system that is not designed with incentives to promote its purpose will fail in its purpose. Obviously, when you pay a healthcare provider only when you are sick, there is not much financial incentive for a healthcare provider to keep you healthy. Sorry to say that, but if you were always healthy, you would never go to a healthcare provider. Healthcare providers would cease to exist.

On the other hand, I realize since writing the last post in 1994 that healthcare providers are not going to agree to such a system, when they are not completely in control, that is, the patient is almost totally in control of their lifestyle once outside of the healthcare practitioners’ office with respect to their diet, medications, risks, and so forth. Combine that with incentive for the patient not to follow their healthcare practitioners’ instructions by partying hearty and so on, that is, the healthcare practitioner pays if the patient gets sick, and the patient doesn’t. Without incentives parallel to, or in partnership with, their healthcare providers, patients are not as likely to stay healthy.

As a result, there must be a partnership between the healthcare provider and the patient, whereby the healthcare provider will make less money, and the patient will pay more money, to the extent the patient is not healthy and requires greater health care costs, and the healthcare provider will make more money, and the patient will save more money, to the extent that the patient remains healthy and doesn't require healthcare costs.

The incentive theory is crystal clear and simple. Now for the hard part. How do you redesign and rebuild a complicated healthcare system to these theoretical specifications? I will continue working and writing on this, but in the meantime, I see a great pre-med senior thesis or a great doctoral thesis on this challenge. How about you? Your incentive is in curing the health care crisis, which is draining the life blood out of this nation.

Beality

Cure the Real Medical Health Care Disease

Preface: This is a copy of a real letter. Notice the date.

April 6, 1994

Mrs. Hillary Clinton
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Subject: Cure the Real Medical Health Care Disease

Dear Mrs. Clinton,

Imagine that you are a doctor. You get paid only when your patients are healthy. You do not get paid when they are diseased.

You are rewarded only if they become, and remain, healthy whether due to recommended life style changes, vitamins, or other health inducing activities, whatever proves to work. You are not rewarded when you and they engage in needless surgery, risky chemical therapies, or other therapies that do not prove to result in better health.

The new Hippocratic Oath should be, “A doctor does not charge patients when they are sick but only when they are well.”

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that if you only pay medical personnel when patients are sick, that the system then invites sickness. The incentives of the present medical establishment are completely the opposite of what they need to be to promote health. Only by reversing the incentive will health be promoted.

If doctors and other health care providers are paid only when they keep people healthy, instead of when they keep them sick, the cost of medical care will decrease dramatically and immediately, to rise as the general health of Americans increases. Americans will truly not mind paying doctors under these circumstances. The quality of medical care will, because of proper incentives, flourish.

The medical care crisis is yours to solve. By changing the incentives, instead of throwing more money at a failed system, you can not only solve the crisis, but usher in a new and enlightened era of medicine.

Sincerely yours,
/s/
The person now known as Beality

Cc: President Clinton
       Letters to the Editor, Washington Post
       Letters to the Editor, Los Angeles Times
       Letters to the Editor, Wall Street Journal
       The United States Surgeon General

***POSTSCRIPT: SEE THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST FOR AN UPDATE....

Daily Shower and Office Break Exercises

These are “isometric” exercises that can be done at least three times per day to strengthen all of your muscle groups.

Take advantage of morning showers, work breaks, long elevator rides, whatever, to perform these exercises.

The below may sound complicated at first, but add an exercise a day or so, to make learning it manageable. Make these a daily habit, and you will feel stronger and healthier within days.

Tighten and release muscles for say 10 or more counts, then contract and do not release them for 10 or more counts, unless otherwise noted, and short of any pain. Pain from a previous exercise should be allowed less forceful tightening, or temporary suspension of that particular exercise.

If you discover enhancements to the below, after your experiences with them, please advise.

1. "Back Smush": Arch the back so that lower back muscles, deltoids (upper back), triceps (back of upper arm), etc. are tightened. Stretch your head backwards, unless you feel dizziness, then move your head upwards. Continue breathing. 
2. "Front Smush": Arch forward so that abdominal, pectoral (breast), and biceps, etc. are tightened. Again, alternate your contraction focus among muscles to maximize effects to all groups. Continue breathing.

3. "Squeezer": Raise the arms straight out and contract the trapezius muscles (upper shoulder), gluteus maximus (butt), and quadriceps (top, front legs). Again, alternate your contraction focus among muscles to maximize effects to all groups. Continue breathing.

4. "Who's Behind Me?": While standing upright, slowly rotate from side to side (look straight behind, if you can) back and forth several times.

5. "Neck Clicker": Rotate, wag, and nod head and neck (not too fast or forceful) to eliminate bone clicking of the vertabrae.

6. "Shoulder Clicker": Rotate, wag, and nod shoulders and spine (not too fast or forceful) to eliminate bone clicking in the shoulder area.

7. "Right Lunge": Stretch left Achilles tendon. Stick both arms out to the side for balance and rotate both hands up and around as strongly as possible 5 times to exercise lower arm muscles, feeling all muscles contracting around the arm. Bring left leg forward and up as far as possible, as if to start a karate kick forward, or complete kick forward, if room. Rotate left leg backwards as far as possible contracting hamstring (upper back leg muscle), as if to start karate kick backward, or complete kick backward, if room.  Add rotations of the foot in both directions if you can.

8. "Wrong Lunge": Repeat Lunge exercises as above with left leg forward.

9. "Weight Up; Window Down": Spread the feet at shoulder width apart and pretend (make it real) to lift a very heavy barbell from the floor up to the upright position,while breathing in, then push the heavy barbell above your head as far as possible, while breathing out, then move your hands as if you are going to lower a sticky window and forcefully pull the window down to your waist, while breathing in, and then forcefully push it slowly down to the floor, while breathing out. Done correctly with isometrics, it will seem all too real, but again, stop short of pain.  Perform several times, but stop short of pain.

10. "Knee Bend Arounder": Slightly bend your knees, place your hands on them, and rotate them around several times one way, then the other way. Then, gently snap the knees backwards several times.

11. "Swivel Hips": Place your hands on your hips and rotate your hips around several times one way, then the other way, slowly dipping down and slowly coming up. Do not bend your knees more than 90 degrees, or less if you experience pain or have had knee injuries. Stop this exercise with any knee pain.

12. "Brain Balancer": Here is a new one, I just discovered. Pinch your right earlobe between your left thumb and forefinger. Pinch your left earlobe between your right thumb and forefinger. Begin shallow knee bends with feet shoulder width apart, breathing in while going down and breathing out while coming up. Do not bend your knees more than 90 degrees, or less if you experience pain or have had knee injuries. Stop this exercise with any knee pain. This exercise is reported to balance both sides of your brain through acupressure, as a bonus.

Once you have done these exercises a few times and make it a daily habit, it becomes easy. and you become stronger and fitter each day you do this.

"Beality"

* * * * *

This article is not intended as medical advice and is not medical advice. This article is intended to provide only general, non-specific health information. The specific facts that apply to your health conditions may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. You should consult with your health provider familiar with your health history prior to using this information. This blog does not create any health provider/client relationship.

Never the Twain Shall Meet – Vacation and Work in the Electronic Age!

Vacations are vacations, and work is work. Right? Wrong!

The Electronic Age has changed not only the way we work, but also the way we vacate. Many commentators have portrayed it as the ruination of our vacations and an intruder into every facet of our lives. Perhaps some features of the Electronic Age will lead to that conclusion. The cellular telephone, and now the smartphone, come to mind, both of which attempt to command your attention at the most inconvenient times.

However, the Electronic Age need not necessarily be the pestilence of the vacation. It can, properly managed, be a tremendous tool in our quest to keep up with our jobs and the world.

Email is inherently that tool. Email need not be responded to at the instant it is sent. Email must await connection to the Internet, which is, of course, under your control. Email need not be responded to at all. We have the luxury to peruse incoming emails and decide which of them are of sufficient urgency to respond to immediately, and which of them are not of sufficient urgency (which will be most of them, fortunately, taking into account the importance of family and vacations) to save on the notebook hard drive to respond to later.

All right, you are now saying to yourself, “Why would I interrupt my vacation for any work-related matter?” If that is the case (and you are earning enough money), I can only congratulate you. For the rest of us, there are always matters pending, as we walk out the door for vacation that will leave us sleepless, if something comes up while we are vacating that requires our special attention, and we are out of contact.

Voila . . . email! Here is a technology that enables us to screen for these critical work matters at our convenience and allows us to respond immediately to those (hopefully) few matters that absolutely require our individual and immediate attention. The purpose of this article is not to clutter up your next vacation with electronic noise, but to give you the tool to manage your vacation in the context of the ever-increasing work speeds and loads.

Leave your cellphone off, however. Cellphones demand attention, when on, and it is a rare person who can not answer. Unless you dump everything immediately into voicemail, you cannot screen out the critical matters from the other matters at your own convenience. If you need to respond to a critical matter sent to you by email or voicemail, you can merely call from anywhere in the world using an international cellphone, or a prepaid cellphone procured at your destination, or worst case, a landline telephone and credit card, should you absolutely, positively need to immediately contact someone about a work-related or other important matter.

How often you check your email on vacation is up to you. How often you answer your cellphone is probably not up to you. Turn off your cellphone . . . better yet . . . don’t even take it! Rely instead upon the email features of either your notebook computer with modem, the hotel’s business center, or the local cyber café down the block in the town of your vacation dreams.

Beality

Who knows the answers?

Those who know the answers don’t have time to give them, while those who don’t know the answers have plenty of time to give them. Internet blogs, such as this one, really exacerbate this phenomenon.

Beality

We just might not appreciate you

Those millions, who have fought, bled, and died for the American way of life, just might not appreciate you.

The people ruled by dictatorial, tyrannical, despotic, autocratic, and arrogant regimes just might not appreciate you.

Hard-working, tax-paying people just might not appreciate you.

People, who do not want handouts, just might not appreciate you.

Law-abiding people just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that all matters should be judged on the merits, rather than on race, minority, or wealth, just might not appreciate you.

The government and the people of Israel now just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that no small elite should decide what is good for everyone, just might not appreciate you.

People, who you promise everything to, and deliver little to, in return for enslavement, just might not appreciate you.

People, who just might not appreciate Communism, just might not appreciate you.

People, who pretend to defend the US Constitution, even though they have not taken the oath to do so, just might not appreciate you.

The increasing numbers of people, who have to protect you from the increasing numbers of people who just might not appreciate you, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe people are good in nature and need no over-controlling and expensive government to control them, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that you should surround yourself with the most talented people, rather than your cronies, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that people left to their own devices can better improve the world, just might not appreciate you.

People, who provide value to the world, rather than those who can’t provide value, and instead use political power to impose what they believe to be valuable to the world, just might not appreciate you.

People, who have worked hard, been forced to join unions, and learned to work soft, just might not appreciate you.

People, who do not believe that you deserve everything in return for producing virtually nothing of value to them, just might not appreciate you.

People, who give charitably, and don't need their government telling them who needs charity, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe in fair competition, just might not appreciate you.

People, who ridicule opponents, when the arguments of their opponent cannot be refuted by logic, evidence, or argument, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that wasting enormous hard-earned resources on those who do not contribute to their society, but are otherwise able to, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that America is the world’s last great hope, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that achievement should be rewarded, and not failure, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that wasting enormous hard-earned resources on scientifically unproven climate theories and scientifically unproven mitigation measures, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that protecting Americans, rather than its enemies, just might not appreciate you.

People, who scoff at their opponents, rather than listen to what their opponents are saying, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that allowing persons to make and maintain wealth, and give it to whom they deem worthy, rather having to give it to others by dictate, just might not appreciate you.

People who have earned their citizenship, rather than evaded laws and taxes, received free education and medical care, taken jobs from real American citizens, and then demanded citizenship, just might not appreciate you.

Non-professional politicians just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that wasting enormous hard-earned resources outside of America without any protections or conditions attached, just might not appreciate you.

People, who do not ascribe to shady schools of "politics,” just might not appreciate you.

People, who do not believe that their ends justify any means to get there, no matter how illegal or unconstitutional, just might not appreciate you.

We, all of the above, just might not appreciate you, whoever you are, and you know who you are.

The Freedoms of Press, Speech, and Assembly are now actually becoming free!

Our wonderful Freedoms of Press, Speech, and Assembly, which certain elitists have used so effectively in pursuing their progressive agenda over the last century, ever since they had the luxury of controlling the media sources of the time (i.e. newspapers, network television, and movies), will be the complete undoing of their agenda, since they are inexorably losing control over these precious and powerful Freedoms (read the Internet, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and who knows what next ...). Going forward, a balanced range of political agenda, including possibly each one of ours, will become available for the review, analysis, and use of all.

Beality

Take what you need...

How did we drift so far from a "make what you need" society into a "take what you need" society?

Beality

There is no more middleground in America...

There is virtually no middleground in American politics any more. Pick your side wisely, because it is really going to make a difference ... soon.

Beality

Welcome to the new Serfdom...

Recent political events concern me.

To the extent we try to bring the lower class up to the level of the middle class, we actually take the middle class down to the lower class.  Oh, and by the way, due to the governmental power necessary to implement these "reforms," both classes become the new feudal serfs to the new feudal lords, a condition of bondage or modified slavery, or "Serfdom." Look it up on Wikipedia.

We now have the newly emerging, elite, professional American politicians, coming to rule by pure political force, offering greater (but soon) lesser and lesser benefits for greater (but soon) lesser and lesser protection (just like the Soviet Union, China, Cuba or Venezuela), rather than providing any true and lasting benefits to society as a whole such as the following fine following persons have: George Washington, Bill Gates, Ben Franklin, Vinton Cerf, Abraham Lincoln, Anita Roberts, or Albert Einstein, to name a very few important ones.

Which direction do you support? Pure political force? Or individual freedoms leading to true and lasting benefits to society?

Beality