Cutting our $2 Trillion Health Care Bill

The cost of health care in the United States is $2 trillion—a figure that represents about 1/6 of our GDP. If it were its own economy, it would be the 4th largest economy in the world. Americans spend more on health care than the entire economies of all but 3 nations in the world. Even if we get the government to pay the bill—it still will cost us. Who do you think will pay the taxes to cover this expense?
There are a number of reasons for the magnitude of our health expense. We pay higher administrative costs than most Western nations. We also spend a lot of money at the end of life—we tend to use the ICU as hospice.
There is one source of expense that is not spoken of very often, and that is drug therapy. The cost of pharmaceuticals is only about 10-15% of the total, but our reliance on them is making us sicker and increasing our health care bill.
We created www.wholehealthweb.com in an attempt to reduce our reliance on drugs and to ultimately cut our health care costs. You can go to these sites and read about natural health care and you can link to the websites of practitioners of natural health care.
Natural health care is effective and is not fraught with side effects of drug therapy. Let’s take a simple example, pain. You can take medication for pain; many people take these drugs thinking that they are helping their situation. Pain medication, may give relief, but it does so at the expense of undermining your health. According to research appearing in the July 27, 1998 issue of the American Journal of Medicine, “Conservative calculations estimate that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalized annually for nosteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-related gastrointestinal (GI) complications and at least 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur each year among arthritis patients alone. The figures for all NSAID users would be overwhelming, yet the scope of this problem is generally under appreciated”
Pain medication actually destroys cartilage—so people taking it for arthritis are actually making themselves worse. It also contributes to high blood pressure, liver problems, kidney problems and heart failure. Expensive health problems late in life can start out by treating pain earlier in life.
Many of our health problems are diet related. Practitioners of natural health care can help here as well. The more you know about natural health care, the longer you will live and the less you will spend. Check out our Practitioner's Directory.