Health Care Incentives?

There’s all this talk on how health care sucks! Yes, I agree especially this year, and with procedures, medical equipment and the like becoming more expensive many people are left without health insurance. Back in high school, probably my sophomore year I remember taking a class called, Genetics, and my favorite part of the class was analyzing what new science has brought to our attention. I found all the articles each student would analyze interesting so today I picked out an article on Daily Science (link of site will be posted last!) called, Cash Incentives, talk can encourage primary care visits by people with new health coverage. The article basically analyzed new patients (small study of 1228 people) that haven’t seen a primary care doctor in the last nine months and these people were enrolled in Medicaid (which if many of you don’t know is insurance for low-income people). This article had of course a control group where no money was given and then other groups where offers of more money was given each time. Surprise! The new patients that were given money were a little more likely to visit a doctor for preventative care. Money can’t seem to be the only incentive, in my opinion, I believe people should be educated on why one visits a primary care doctor. The reason being that visiting a primary care doctor means illnesses and preventative measures can be taken to ensure that many patients are living a lifestyle pertaining to their conditions. The article brushes up on how the costs of health insurance is up due to emergency room visits. For example, let’s take someone who eats like garbage, fails to recognize any ailments in their body (come on now sometimes we can live a little and drink that extra shot of whatever! Only kidding, I mean it’s up to you) later in life this will catch up to the patient. Just being aware of why let’s say wheat bread is healthier than white bread are simple techniques of applying knowledge that is studied continuously and researched by scientists and the like, of why maintaining health and what we eat is so important. God made our bodies to be a temple not a disposable garbage (harsh I know). In summary, the article talks about how having a health care coordinator that helps the new patients through the system and gives them valid reason of visiting a doctor can facilitate the process for low income people since their ignorance (hey this word is notorious for having the stigma of ‘stupidity’, but no it’s just a simple lack of knowledge) on the health system is now made aware of.  What’s so beautiful about health is how the concept behind ‘being healthy’ can be applied to nearly if not all professions one does. Just like a car if you don’t start with simple oil changes every 3,000-10,000 (depending on what oil is used) the car is bound to break down even more and cost more to repair!

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170807164435.htm