"They Couldn't Afford it Even if it Works."

Perhaps we're spending too much on technology to treat growing medical problems and not enough on technology to research and prevent the problems from growing.

I'm no expert on economic issues but it's my humble opinion that if we spent more in the research field we'd potentially spend less in the treatment field. It's not that we don't need technology or it isn't a major benefit in the treatment realm. On the contrary, I feel as though it is vital. However, it's just as important, if not more, to figure out how to prevent people from getting sick in the first place.

At risk of being sounding idealistic regarding a system that we know is faulty and far from being patient-centric, I believe the most important issue here is how that increase is going to impact those who are already struggling to afford health care. What good is an increase in spending when it's not benefiting the people who might need it most?

I'm not sure there's a real answer to that question because the situation is so complex. A poorly executed system in any field drains unnecessary resources. Technological advances cost a lot of money but few people argue the spending when there may be some tiny remote chance the technology could treat cancer or detect genetic disorders. It's a field that allows for a lot of justification for spending but when the affects of that trickle down to the pocketbooks of everyday Americans what do you say? I think that's an age-old question whenever it comes to spending, anywhere.

I believe its time that we start to utilize our resources to their fullest and start focusing on how to make it so that people need these expensive treatment technologies less. It's such a loaded issue and so multi-facited that to think there there are even only twenty factors that play a large role is, I think, naive. There are so many people, organizations, businesses, so much politics and the like involved that before we can even get people to care about how we can make everything more cost efficient we need to come up with a better understanding of why it is and why we should.