WHAT IS WRONG WITH HEALTH CARE TODAY?

Executive Summary

The following essay on Health Care is divided into six general sections. In the first one a description of the many problems facing our health care system are described and an attempt at explaining why the problems are there is made. In the second and third sections a description of the tort problems in medicine plus many other related issues are made.

In the fourth section a new approach using a single payer is described to answer the issues raised in the first section. In the fifth and sixth sections issues raised in sections two and three are addressed.

This treatise is divided into six parts. Understanding them in the order presented will make understanding the proposed solution easier.

THE PROBLEM

I. The Faustian Nature of Today's Health Care Delivery

II. The Tort Problem

III. Miscellaneous

1. Mindless Bureaucracy
2. Problems in the Pharmaceutical Sphere
3. Health Care for Seniors
4. Other

THE SOLUTION

IV. Medicine without a Faustian Pact

V. Thoughts on Tort Reform

VI. Closing Comments

I. The Faustian Nature of Today's Health Care Delivery

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1 832) was one of the greatest writers the world has ever known. He is sometimes called the German Shakespeare. One of his most famous works was called Faust. He worked on this story for most of his life and called it his masterpiece. I suspect that as he matured he felt he could do better on certain parts of it Like so many of the really great pieces of world literature it is about the constant struggle in the world between good and evil. After his death the story would pop up again in novels, operas, and other places in works that also would become literary and musical classics.

The story is devilishly (pardon the pun) simple. The hero Faust is visited by the devil (Goethe calls the devil Mephistopheles); the devil makes certain overtures to Faust offering certain things to him. In the story the devil offers him all knowledge but the story can easily be interpreted to mean many things other than knowledge such as money, political power, fame, medical care, etc. Faust is amazed that the devil wanted to offer him this and asked what the devil wanted in return for providing this to him. The devil answered "your soul". Faust thought about this and finally decided that he would take him up on it. Sometime later it becomes apparent that the deal in question was not the wonderful thing he thought it was so Faust returns to the devil and tells him he wanted out of the deal and to give him his soul back. However the devil told him "a deal's a deal" and he cannot have his soul backThe deal that Faust made with the devil has since been called a Faustian Pact or Faustian Dilemma. As we shall see getting out of a Faustian Pact is not necessarily all that easy.

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