Health Care in Crisis!

Health Care Systems are in crisis! Burgeoning costs, aging populations combined with shortages of doctors, nurses, and other key professionals have strained resources as never before.

Hostage to the sickness-care paradigm

The common thread underlying these many challenges is a root cause so large and hiding in plain sight it is the quintessential elephant in the room.

THAT root cause is our over-dependence on methods that (in the words of their own advertisements) are likely to cause more problems than they (MAY) help – including death in some cases. So (DO) be sure to ask your doctor if: XYZ Pharmaceutical is “right” for you?

It is no joking matter!

In the interest of providing context, according to the FDA and the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association: for every US$1.11 spent on a prescription drug it costs another US$1.77 to treat the harm it does.
Source: Shoddy Science Under Scrutiny, Vitality Magazine, April 2002, Page 12

Think about the ramifications of that statistic for a moment: if a public health agency spent US$111 Billion on prescription drugs annually it would need to have a further US$177 Billion lined up to treat the problems caused by the first US$111 Billion.

Of course a significant percentage - approximately 16% in Canada (source: CBC News) of that additional US$177 Billion will be used to purchase more drugs meaning the collateral damage cost continually compounds. At an estimated 16% this equals an additional US$28 Billion will be spent buying drugs that (based on the US$1.11 requires US$1.77) will cause a further US$45 billion worth of problems – which will of course, cause more collateral damage.

To make matters worse governments borrow money at interest to buy the drugs (logically at compounding interest), the population is aging and (statistically) health care costs for those over 65 is 4 times that of younger people. This has serious ramifications in Canada considering the population of seniors is expected to rise from 17% to 21% by 2028. (Source: Meeting the Care Needs of Canada’s Aging Population, Conference Board of Canada July 2018). The percentage of seniors in the US Canada is expected to increase from 17% in 2022 to 23% by 2050. (Source: Fact Sheet: Aging in the United States, PRB Resource Library, January, 2024).

Worst of ALL – no one ever gets better! Further contributing to those woes is the fact that decades and decades of being held hostage by the over-dependence on drugs, collateral problems and compounding interest - there is never enough money and resources to address, poverty, housing, education and infrastructure.

Governments and other Stakeholders scramble to do MORE with less while pharmaceutical companies profit exponentially, further benefit from well-meaning initiatives seeking cures to longstanding problems (limited in the scope of possible solutions – to MORE drugs - by the influence and power of those who benefit from the status quo) - and justify price increases through a set of rules they influence and control.

The Myth of Health Care “TRANSFORMATION”?

Governments and other Stakeholders also seek innovative ways to make “health” care better. Words like TRANSFORMATION get thrown around when, in fact, most of what gets done is the creation of new ways to do the same old things.

Indeed, in nature, TRANSFORMATION is a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly or a seed becoming a flower. Electricity, the telephone, computers and the internet transformed society. Figuring out a new way to deliver the same sickness-based services (proven to create more problems than they fix) is NOT transforming "health" care – and equally not the lives of those it is meant to serve!

In short, unless we FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE COURSE (and not continue re-arranging deck chairs - in the form of different ways to distribute prescription drugs) things can only get worse despite the efforts of caring and dedicated people!

1. Welcome
2. WELLNESS is the KEY!
3. Health Care in Crisis!