Making Universal Health care work!? part 3

In part three we look into the final steps to making the universal health system work.  Here we go.

Step 6 is making nurses do nearly everything.  Basically where a diagnosis is not needed the nurses will do the job.  They could be physical therapists, act as nutritionists, medical lab testers in addition to taking blood, checking blood pressure and the like.  Basically they could do the basics that do not require a doctor and can be taught in certification classes without the need for college.  For instance, all nurses will know first aid and how to do what nurses do, but they too can go into specializations like the aforementioned physical therapist and can even act like an MRI technician in the same way I have seen some trained to do x-rays so long as it only takes a certification class to become proficient.  Other times if the computer can diagnose, such as through disease testing kits and similar, the nurse can use that tests diagnosis and even recommended treatments via reference materials to provide the patients with what they need for treatment.   This means that doctors will only be required for when things are above a simple diagnosis that nurses could provide.  Additionally doctors will be focused at this point on more specialized fields like performing operations or similar like neurosurgery.  (Note: Can be done in our current healthcare system to reduce costs)

Step 7 revolves around technology.  It basically revolves around self-diagnosis technology similar to what WebMD has, but is improved further so as to supplement doctors thanks to an up and coming technology.  The people who organize X-prize sought to create the tricorder and it's already in testing for market use.  For those who don't know, the tricorder is a self-diagnosis tool, and our cell phones will be the center of this new technology.  Basically by downloading an app our cell phones, possibly with a hardware device plugged in via a USB cable, will allow us to monitor our health each day or weekly by testing our stress level, blood pressure, vision, hearing amongst others.  From there based on these readouts, and a series of questions which according to what I have seen on the news and read ("Beyond Tomorrow" documentary, Fox news, economist, X-prize website) will be able to diagnose you if you have any illnesses.  It will even recommend a blood test which can be linked by wireless systems (probably an altered sugar testing kit that diabetics use or similar) that comes as part of the kit or is bought every time you need one to diagnoses diseases beyond the scope of simple monitoring.  It can then tell you to see a doctor or not.  Adding to that the app stores your data so that you can send updates to your doctor on your health or the doctor can use the app as a tool to aid in diagnosis when a person goes to the doctor.  Essentially it allows your medical records to travel with you.  Similarly, things like sonograms and other diagnostic and health monitors can be integrated into smartphones that the doctor can use to figure out what is wrong with their patients and thus provide treatment. (Note: Can be done in our current healthcare system to reduce costs)

Step 8 is the final step.  Here determines what actually should be covered and what should not once steps 1 through 7 are achieved.  The government will have to decide if basic treatment should be covered by a universal health system or just catastrophic care leaving all other cheap and expensive treatments to the people and to health insurance.  I personally think that if universal health is implemented after all this it should focus exclusively on catastrophic care like people in comas and cancer treatments.  Reason being is that these are the main drain on our health industry with respect to hospitals and treatments.  Likewise taking care of the disabled will also factor which is already provided for in part due to Social Security and Medicare.  We can all afford cheap antibiotics and even Percocets' generic with just 30 pills which is $30 tops (I work in a pharmacy remember) not to mention most people don't use health care between the ages of 15 to 50 as they are healthy and thus rarely need to see a doctor.  So many of these drugs are affordable to an extent and that means with other changes all other treatments can be just as cheap too.

Conclusion to part 3:  All together, Steps 3 through 7 (See part 1 and 2 for the details) can be used on our current system to reduce medical costs.  Steps 1,2 and 8 are concerned with universal health care as a whole so as to reduce costs to the overall universal health system for even if we make these changes catastrophic care is the biggest drain on our health system and thus research into curing the worst diseases like cancer becomes all that much more important.  Remember, Medicare, Medicaid, and other forms of socialized medicine will disappear into this system so it will primarily be used to take care of the patients who will be needing health care the most, our seniors who have a higher risk of catastrophic health care events.  As such, the system will never be perfect, but depending on how it is done we may be able to make it work (and that is if it treats catastrophic care only).  I have my doubts though.