Over the past 30 years there has been and extreme and progressive deterioration of the American Healthcare Ecosystem from one that was in line with the Catholic Social teachings of Human Dignity and the Dignity of Life, Solidarity- Quality care for all individuals, vs different strategies and resources for different groups, Subsidiarity- a private practice, decentralized approach, and Greater Good- an equitable exchange whereby human pain and suffering and the body itself is not seen as a vehicle for monetization and exploitive wealth, to an eco-system that is reckless and even dangerous, highly concentrated, Government/Special Interest centric, Wall Street and Provider focused care that is commonly exploitive and unduly expensive, largely degrading, myopic with stagnant/pharmaceutical centric methods of treatment as well as impaired communication and sloppy and disorganized research and insufficient protections and accountability coupled with increasing mandates and progressively coerced or forced care. This is particularly the case in mental health, which is a key focus for New Life Health Ventures.
Suicide is at epidemic rates and it is known that several pharmaceuticals- well over 1000 are known to cause suicidal ideation yet due to antiquated database structures it is not possible to pull a comprehensive list of these medications from government databases. In reality, these are not safe medications. Additionally, there is no comprehensive form to capture factors present when there is ideation or actual harm to self or others and in most cases, if a coroner rules a death a suicide further investigation is halted.
It is known that many medications have harmful effects on the body, leading to diabetes, kidney disease, fibrosis and birth defects or complications for the baby and the ability to analyze and know the areas of the body impacted by a pharmaceutical is available and in many cases has been done, yet this information goes unknown by providers, patients, pharmacists, and researchers when it should be mandated that the FDA and the drug manufacturer promulgate this information so as to assure informed consent. These too are not safe medications and can cause a deterioration of quality of life and premature death. Complications from medications has been estimated to be the third leading cause of death and no work has been done to capture the full healthcare costs of a damaging pharmaceutical with respect to medical appointments, ensuing treatments and hospitalizations that occur due to taking the medication even though this information is relevant and capturable without violating privacy.
Over the past 30 years, Healthcare has increased from 8% of GDP to over 18% and climbing and failure is ever present. Most people dread going to the doctor. The life expectancy has decreased in the United States. The Opioid Crisis, the Suicide Crisis, the Diabetes Crisis and now COVID-19 readily exhibit failed and dangerous strategies and procedures, big bills, untimely deaths, care and treatment that varies significantly by economic status, and little learning. Private practice doctors and hospitals have given way to Mega Corporations.
The overarching role of Federal Government grant money for research and programs needs to be called into question, as over $42 billion is spent annually in this area by the National Institute of Health, and the National Institute of Mental Health is the world’s largest funder of mental health research. This may lead to appeasing and myopic thinking and presents a distraction and impediment to the government’s role as protector and the necessary role of researchers in critiquing research and government agencies and officials due to their desire or reliance on such grants. The extending of U.S. grant moneys to other nations/foreign universities is questionable and problematic.
Finally, in a very real way, as practiced today, health insurance in the United States can be dictating, distracting, interfering, complicit, and a major expense and drain on the system. Health insurance has nothing to do with healing; health insurance is a mechanism for exchange, and clumsy and it has largely forfeited its role as a protector or check in the system and has little value-added benefits and its costs and procedures way exceed pooled risk.