HEALTHCARE CRISIS IN AMERICA

Health Care Crisis in America

Health Care Crisis in America

The U.S. faces a healthcare crisis of monumental proportions with myriad facets including issues of access, quality, and affordability - the subject of much political rhetoric. Amidst the many facets of the crisis, and the rancor that attends it, are the problems of physician shortages in certain critical areas of practice, such as primary care, and the growing refusal of physicians to accept Medicare patients. Both problems are allegedly related to physician compensation, which, in turn, is linked to controversy involving medical malpractice insurance cost that supposedly causes physicians to shy away from certain medical specialties and has been heavily debated in recent years. In addition, physician shortages are also potentially related to Medicarefee-for-service (FFS) rules that are having a profound effect on physicians' reimbursement for services and their career choices with respect to area of practice.

U.S. healthcare is in a crisis, troubled by problems with cost, availability, and quality, with a long history of political wrangling such that it has been termed a $1.3 trillion [year 2000 figure] fiasco.737 Clearly, the nation is getting a poor return on healthcare spending measured by cost versus benefit of healthcare spending, and the United States falls short of all dimensions of a high performance health system.738 One commentator has suggested that healthcare spending might be cut in half by improving quality, stating that 47% of healthcare spending in the United States is waste.739 The majority of Americans are dissatisfied with U.S. healthcare, and 82% desirous of an overhaul of the system.740 For years, the legal system has been blamed for physicians' woes with their compensation with virtually continuous demands for tort reform to reduce the cost of professional liability insurance. Our analysis suggests, however, that a main, but largely overlooked, culprit with ...