I Am a Registered Nurse
1. It's for profit- As long as there are hospital directors, managers and CEO's who get paid bonuses for meeting cost goals. Appropriate supplies will not be provided or will be overcharged to patients and increase patient costs, staffing will always be short, staff morale with be low because of decreased benefits and resources.
2. Insurance- As insurance companies seek to earn a profit they will force costs down by denying benefits to those who need it and force hospitals to provide more care for higher costs. Because costs can not be cut in the technological and pharmaceutical divisions (because of powerful lobbies and expense of resources) Costs will continue to be cut in staffing. Lower salaries ( lower morale of healthcare workers leading to more staff shortages) Overworked staff ( more mistakes)--- Forget computerizing it's too expensive and no one will pay for it
3. American culture that glorifies youth and does not accept death. As long as we are still using costly life saving technology to keep the chronically ill elderly alive with very little quality of life costs will continue to rise. Don't have the exact statistic but approximately 90% of medicare costs for a patient are spent on the last six months of their life. We all die. It is beautiful and natural.... We need to learn to be okay with that and help people feel comfort in the end.
Wish the politicians would get a grip and do the write thing....
