Saturday, October 16, 2010

Health vs. Health Insurance: How Mental Silos Blind Us to What Matters Most in Healthcare.

The Drudge Report today linked to an AP story on the spread of cutaneous leishmaniasis, the incidence of which has quadrupled in the past few years.   The parasitic skin disease comes from the female phlebotomine sand fly. There is treatment, but treatment is expensive, and of course, in Afghanistan it can be dangerous to be a caregiver.

It's tragic that this disease is afflicting Afghans, and it will be even more tragic if the disease spreads.  Once again, a reminder: The public health victories of one era can be lost in a subsequent era.

And so once again, we are reminded, health itself is more important than healthcare finance.  As it happens, I am reading Rebecca Costa's new book, The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction, in which the author talks about the problem of "silos"--mental walls that keep us from thinking outside of our lane.  More often than not, these silos are self-imposed, and yet even though they are "voluntary," they can be paralyzing, intellectually.

And that's what has happened to the US in the healthcare debate.  We have "healthcare finance" in one silo, and that's been the hot silo for decades.  And in the other silo, we have Serious Medicine, which has been much neglected over the same period.   There is little interchange between the two.

Yet a look at this boy's face should tell us which is is the ultimately more important silo.

4 comments:

  1. Imagine going through life with a deformity that you cannot hide. It becomes an overriding focal point of your thoughts in your wonderment on how people view you and accept or reject you as a friend. Mr. Pinkerton is correct, throwing money at programs will not clear this boy's face.We have to Find the Cure and concentrate on that and not let up.

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  2. I believe this condition could be successfully treated quickly with a Class IV therapy laser. These lasers are used by all the major sports teams, Lakers, Celtics etc to quickly heal sports injuries.

    The lasers are also anti-microbial, killing all sorts of infections. While the FDA has granted marketing clearance for the lasers for "treating neuromusculoskeletal pain and inflammation," yet they have tremendous potential for treating infections (doctors are using them to treat toe fungus and other conditions).

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  3. Health Insurance is always better to buy then bearing the high bills of some serious disease.but it should be clear that all Health Insurance does not cover all treatments like some therapies may not be covered so you should be aware of these points

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