Have you seen Sicko? I got the management team from a healthcare client of mine to go see it with me last week in Boston. I thought it was great. If you know nothing about healthcare, you will think our system is the worse system in the world and be appalled. If you work in healthcare, you realize Michael found and did a great job of pointing out many of the weaknesses.
He also did a good job of identifying some interesting facts and showing us how healthcare works abroad. Without being a spoiler, here are some observations:
- People without health insurance that get hurt face some very tough challenges. We need some type of care system that supports them.
- Our processes should not interfere with care. Dropping people off in hospital gowns since they can't pay their hospital bills is wrong.
- Drugs are a lot cheaper outside the US.
- The hypothesis that you wait for care outside the US seems to be a myth.
- Running a company based on denial of care versus managing risk through wellness is a problem. This ties to bigger problems we have with the system design.
Before I go off as a liberal republican (or conservative democrat), my only recommendation is see the movie.
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