Health Scare by Rene Moret focused on the main reasons why the U.S health care system is in the trouble it’s in today. The first thing I have to say about this book is that it’s very easy to read and understand.  It’s not filled with complicated analogies, the points are broken down into simple terms that even a layperson can understand.

The problem is that physicians are scared to practice medicine because a lawyer waits around every corner ready and available to sue.  So as Mr. Moret mentioned, physicians practice defensive medicine in case they have to defend themselves in a lawsuit.  The basis of the U.S. healthcare system as it stands today is the promotion of “sick care” vs promoting “wellcare”.

I loved the car analogy used in this book.  It really brings everything into prospective and drives home the point that we take better care of our car than we do ourselves.  Many of us maintain our car because we want to keep it running for a long time, but what we and most insurance plans fail to realize is that proper maintenance of our bodies is essential to having a healthier and longer life and therefore cuts the cost of healthcare.

It is shameful to see that the U.S. healthcare ranks 37th in the world health system. How is that possible when the hospitals across our nation promote their top of the line scanning systems? All the high cost “medically unnecessary” CT scans, X-rays and nuclear medicine scans that have skyrocketed over the past 20 years is leaving a buildup of radiation in the patient’s body. The American population doesn’t want to hear that a CT scan is harmful because “more is better.”  That is the American mentality isn’t it, that more and bigger is better? And no one wants to hear that these tests are very expensive.

It’s important to know that in this book Mr. Moret does not support the new health reform bill push by President Obama and the democrats in the House and Congress, because it does not address the growing cost of healthcare.  As a matter-of-fact the bill will increase the cost of healthcare over the long run.  The President’s plan also did not address the amount of waste in healthcare today and how to curb the waste in the future.

To fix the healthcare system in the U.S., as Mr. Moret pointed out in the book, will take years and will generate more controversy and debate.  The breakdown of the system did not happen yesterday and quite frankly there is a lot of revenue that will be lost.  The lawyers, the doctors, the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies are not interested in changes to the current system because it is not in their best interest.  Moret’s plan to improve U.S. Healthcare could very well work but motivating the doctors and their patient’s alike to take interest in a “wellcare” system may take an act of Congress.