HEALTH CARE SYSTEM LECTURE NOTES

• Nature is the best healer. Good strategy for 90%+ health problems = do no harm.
• About 15% of GDP goes into health care and health care research. (Discuss.)
• People today are doing better but feeling worse than in the past. Why? . . . 
• Allopathic medicine = MDs medicine. Based on 
  • physiology (body function) and anatomy (body structure)
  • environmental (including social) and genetic cause
• MDs are (in general) are the most reliable source of health information (MD education = . . . )
• CAM = Complementary and Alternative Medicine = everything other than allopathic medicine. 
• IMHO, CAM has gotten a "free-ride."
• Integrative medicine = brings together allopathic medicine and CAM. (not a bad idea . . . )
• Types of health care systems:
  • Government funded: Medicare (for elderly) and Medicaid (for poor and unemployed)
  • Privately funded: employer funded insurance, self-insured, private payment
• Uninsured people receive emergency health care through public hospitals. 
• Managed care = network of approved providers with capitation payment (preset fee per person). Types:
  • Group HMOs - HMO owns clinics and employs medical staff
  • IPA-HMO - individual practice associations (Drs.) accept capitation fees
  • PPOs  - contracted for by a third party (union, insurance company, business)
• We are relying more and more on self-care. Chap 13 includes information on how to evaluate online health information. We take this opportunity to discuss the article by Harris (1997) from earlier in the semester. The key is prudent use of judgment (including common sense, experience, "reality tests") to address Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, and Support