Over the last 15 years there has been a cry to curb the costs of health care and from this cry has arisen the HMO or Health Maintenance Organization. This entity which is more common in the US has in the last 5 years also begun to creep into Canada. The philosophy behind HMO's is that efficient business practices can help curb health care costs and by doing so also improve the quality of healthcare. Is this however actually happening? Well let's take a closer look. Physicians who work in HMO's are caught, in a manner of speaking, between a "rock and a hard place". That is they are caught between maintaining costs of providing services below a certain defined threshold while providing the top quality healthcare demanded by their patients. Their ability to achieve this feat ultimately becomes a measure of their performance and is reflected in their income. In today's litigious healthcare environment the cost of personal liability insurance has risen significantly across the profession in North America. Most of these costs are born by individual physicians. As conventional medicine rarely attempts to uncover and treat the underlying causes of illness, rather it aims at symptom control, most patients are essentially placed "on ice" until their problem festers and re-erupts in some other more serious form. The patient then presents once again to the HMO physician who is once again faced with the task of "hiding" the problem. Each time that "symptom management" is attempted more invasive and harmful treatments need to be employed. These treatments are also increasingly more expensive. Throughout this process the patient is under the delusion that because they are receiving such expensive treatment, supported by expensive and advanced technology, they are receiving top quality healthcare. In fact this is far from the truth. What is actually happening is that they are being made progressively more ill and their financial resources are being progressively being depleted. It's interesting that many individuals are awakening to the truth of what is going on and are beginning to take greater responsibility for their own health by educating themselves about prevention. Prevention is about proper nutrition, regular exercise, awareness and avoidance of toxic chemicals (i.e. environmental, hygiene products, drugs, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, EMF's, etc.), regular and ongoing detoxification routines that cleanse the liver, use of therapeutic grade essential oils that boost immune system function, adequate supplementation with minerals & vitamins, regular de-stressing through approaches such as meditation, yoga, MRP, chi gong etc, and so on. Many will say that they don't have the time or money for such preventative approaches. Well in the long run I would say that it is actually a much cheaper and healthier approach than the conventional one. The only thing that is stopping you from adopting it is fear. |
