It sounds good, but it's not true. At least, not when you look at the results. Some of our excess deaths are likely a result of our high-tech orientation. Thus, medical interventions cause 10 times the number of homicides in the United States each year and trail only cancer and heart disease as the leading killers of Americans. Not only are we paying more for health care but a lot of what we buy directly leads to adverse affects for patients.
Money has a lot to do with it.
We're doing too much of the high-cost specialized medical interventions at the same time that more than 40 million Americans are denied access to health insurance. And many of the rest are deprived of an opportunity to build a strong relationship with a doctor of their choice, someone who would coordinate all their care, because of managed care and the way our health insurance system works. That is true only for elective surgery. Otherwise, patients see their primary care physician quickly and often, leading to a system of health that focuses more on prevention and early care and less on drastic medical interventions that run the risk of errors and adverse effects. True primary care has never taken root in the United States, despite the idea of the old family doctor making house calls.