Three major public health problems include stress, obesity, and lack of doctors. Stress is one of the foremost problems in America. Statistics indicate that 44% of Americans claim to be more stressed than they were 5 years ago. 1 in 5 Americans experience “extreme stress,” involving rapid, fluttering, or pounding heart, shaking, and depression. Work stress causes 10% of strokes. 40% of stressed people overeat or eat unhealthy foods. Further, stress increases the chance of heart disease by 40%, heart attack by 25%, and stroke by 50%. Stress-related diseases costs the nation $300 billion every year in medical bills and lost productivity. Apparently, stress is related to overworking, unpaid overtime, lack of vacations, and the like.
Obesity is a major problem in the nation right now. According to an NIH survey, more than 2 in 3 adults are overweight or obese and more than 1 in 3 adults are considered obese. Being overweight or obese is dangerous because it can lead to Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease, osteoarthritis, and various kinds of cancers. Treatment often includes a mixture of behavioral treatment, diet, exercise, and sometimes weight loss drugs. Government guidelines recommend that healthy adults take part in aerobic activity of moderate intensity for at least 150 minutes a week or vigorous intensity for 75 minutes a week. They also recommend that people do activities that strengthen muscles (such as weight training or push-ups) at least twice a week. A study conducted in 2003–2004 to measure physical activity found that only about 3 to 5 percent of adults meet these recommendations.
The shortage of doctors is a tremendous problem at the current time and will become much, much worse as time goes by. A number of studies have estimated that by the year 2020, the U.S. will be short from between 24,000 and 200,000 physicians. Evidence indicates that younger physicians are not willing to work 80-hour work weeks like their elders did, valuing spending time with the family over working all the time. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the nation’s population over the age of 62 will increase from 46 million now to 83 million in 2030. 14 million will have diabetes and 21 million will be obese. $130,000 average debt from graduating medical school and selection of specialties which pay more are among the factors responsible for perpetuating this lack of primary care doctors.
One innovation that can help address the shortage of doctors is to decrease the cost for graduating medical school. One way to do this is to make medical school free and have doctors who want to become specialists pay for their specialist training. The cost of making medical school free is about $2.5 billion a year. This will get rid of enormous debt for doctors, which will provide a strong tendency towards primary care. Also, since potential specialists must pay for their training, their jobs will always be in demand.
Source:
http://www.stress.org/stress-is-killing-you/
http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx
http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/MAG-92871/Will-There-Be-Enough-Doctors
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/opinion/29bach.html?_r=0
http://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com/is-medical-school-worth-it-financially/
I think your point about stress ties very well into the discussion about preventative care that we had in class the other day. Since stress causes such diverse health problems as irregular heartbeat, depression, overeating, strokes, heart disease, and heart attacks and costs taxpayers $300 million per year, it would make sense for the government to have stronger anti-stress initiatives. Since most stress is related to personal finance/work, laws and regulations such as raising the minimum wage, legally requiring a certain amount of paid vacation, requiring parental leave comparable to Western Europe, etc., could effectively not only reduce stress, but reduce many of the health problems associated with it. Economically, though, I’m not whether the $300 million per year saved by reducing stress would exceed the cost of implementing and maintaining such measures.
I wonder is your solution to the shortage of doctors is an effective one as it leaves several questions unanswered. For example $2.5 billion dollars a year is a large sum of money. How would you propose your solution be financed?
I would like to propose a different solution. Instead of fearing sources like WebMD which aid average people in diagnosis we should embrace this technology. If a computer were able to accurately diagnosis a patient, it would significantly lessen the patient load on general practitioners. A computer system at Stanford University can already detect breast cancer more accurately than a human doctor. See link below.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/104407-computer-more-accurate-than-human-doctor-at-breast-cancer-diagnosis