Reality and Health Value

It’s time to have some real dialogue around the issue of health care value in this country. New information from the Spectrum Health Value Study™ provides a mirror of what the America people value when they are spending their own health care dollars on health care for themselves and their families.

Perhaps this information will help steady the wobbly stool of health care. Although there is plenty of discussion about health care access and quality, the fact is health care is a three-legged, not a two legged, stool. Access and quality must be steadied by value in health care.

Without value, people don’t know what they are buying and/or they fail to understand the relative value of health care services like immunizations, a visit to the doctor or a trip to the emergency room. Today we released the results of a new study on how Americans value health care. The study reports and additional information can be found at our website www.healthvaluestudy.com.

We did this study because we were curious about how Americans value health care services. Our findings include some surprises in areas including – mental health value – preventive health services – nutrition and – access Last week, GE announced a six billion (yes, with a “B”) dollar program to improve health care. GE chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt was quoted as saying, “Health care is an important industry that is challenged by rising costs, inequality of access and persistent quality issues.”

Again, the discussion is around access and quality with no mention of value. When you are preparing to spend six billion dollars, one would think you would be somewhat concerned about value! We want to be that ‘someone’ talking about value. We hope you will join the dialogue.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the reality of rapid aging

 

 

In the Movie, starring Brad Pitt, called the Curious Case of Benjamin Button a person is born old and slowly ages backwards. The movie was a moving story and received a record number of Academy Award nominations. Near the end of his life, Benjamin Button looked like a little child, but he was an old man.

 

In fact there is a real disease, called Progeria, in which little children are born, looking like regular, healthy babies, and they rapidly age. By the time they are four years old, they have the body of a seventy-year old. They suffer all the physical signs of aging including losing their hair, heart disease, arthritis, breathing problems and much, much more. Interestingly, few if any of them have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Today someone asked me why the FaceBook Cause I, along with another children’s health advocate, also named Audrey, created has 868 members—which is more members than there are children with the disease. The answer is obvious, regular people are easier to find and easier to recruit to a cause like one of rapid aging in children than are actual kids with the disease who have never been diagnosed. HOWEVER, the whole purpose of the Cause is to identify additional kids around the globe with this condition.

 

To do this, we need a lot more than 868 members or even 3,000 members. We need our members to support the Progeria Research Cause with their dollars and to use their networking skills to reach out to parts of the globe, when they travel and when they correspond with people via all the new media devices, to say “Hey, do you know a child that looks like this child—the one on the Progeria Cause page on FaceBook and do you know if that child has ever been to a specialist in childhood genetic disorders do that she or he can be counted and given the proper treatment for their aging?”

 

You can do this. Start by going to our Cause page at the following address and donate to the Cause. On the donate tab the minimum amount is $10.00, but you surely give that. Unfortunately the FaceBook causes will not allow a smaller donation. If all 816 people did this, we could go a long way toward reaching our fundraising goals and also in recruiting new members, who just might be in a little village somewhere in Italy or Africa where they will notice a child who looks like a child they saw on FaceBook. You CAN make a difference and I hope you will pause right now and try.