1. Chronic disease. 75% of the cost of health care is life–style related. (i.e. obesity) We can address this with the changes I suggest in the Urbanism section.
2. End of life battles – we spend a tremendous amount of money in fighting for every last moment of life. We should focus on palliative care and helping the dying face the end with dignity.
3. Routine Care – emergency rooms are the most expensive kind of care we have. It has become our universal health care.
4. We chase reimbursements. Doctors who own MRIs use them 75% more than doctors who do not.
5. Defensive medicine – Doctors do not want to miss something, and they get sued if they miss a diagnosis. They have to test even there is a 0.5% chance of something. To this we can add the high cost of litigation, something I address in my book chapter on Justice.
6. Consumers want the latest health care and they want it now.
clipped from: www.michaelearth.org