Without incentives to get people to realize that their health is their responsibility and they need to learn about it, learn what steps to stay health/prevent disease, communicate with their physicians (as a team!) and not just wait to be told what to do after they get sick. We need to think very creatively about how we put responsibility back in the hands of the people but then also have safeguards (catastrophic insurance, as insurance was meant to be in the first place) So, folks pay something and have some skin in the game but do not go bankrupt if an accident or disease does occur. They have an incentive to get their preventative check-ups, go exercise, spend a little more on healthy foods…. Otherwise, many people just don’t care. They want to be lazy, eat junk all day and think to themselves that someone else will pay for the results of their laziness and lack of interest in their own health.

You don’t have to become a doctor to learn how to stay healthy (you work with your doctor, just as people work with their investment advisors but still understand the basics of investing and don’t relinquish ALL control of their money) If there will be no incentives or penalties directly to the consumer/patient to change, then transformation will be a long ways off.

Fred H Schlegel’s last blog post..Buffalo Bill, Eiffel, Otis and The Keys To Success

A) The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back.

This is certainly true. Much of our health care system is rooted in the past and is afraid of change. While not a fan of gov’t sponsored health care, the industry does itself a huge disservice by not aggressively adapting to today’s issues (economics, access, quality) but remains fairly rooted in the past. The problem however is that doing what has always been done to attack an issue simply doesn’t work. The external forces are vastly different now than in the past. It takes new thinking and a new approach. Resistance to change is understandable. In many “traditional” health care organizations the fear of change is palpable. It is understandable that changes that may affect one’s income or in this case, one’s perception that change may somehow lessen overall quality or put a patient at risk is simply not true. There is a level of protection for things known vs. unknown which I find rather interesting given the high degree of adaption and innovation around medical devices, procedures and pharma. These are readily adapted once ‘proven’ but they are adapted nonetheless. From a business management / leadership perspective however the industry tends to be a late adopter of innovation.

B) The easy way out usually leads back in.

For those that have really studied (on balance) the Universal Healthcare solution, it becomes apparent that it isn’t the right answer. Some would argue that at least it is better than we have now but I would disagree. We have a real chance in this country to change the system the right way. But we cannot simply throw in the towel and look to the government to care for us all. Once we go down that path there is no turning back.

C) Faster is slower.

I do believe that our system is in many ways broken. But that doesn’t imply all of the parts are. They simply may not work well with one another. There are some fantastic organizations and leaders that are influencing the system the right way for all of the right reasons. We must be careful to not overreact out of frustration to create a new system that we don’t truly understand. I am very concerned that change, while needed, happens so fast that we are not clear of the unintended consequences.

D) There is no blame.

And where do we think the defensiveness comes from? TOGETHER we need to make this work.