I have a friend that writes on the future of technology.   In tech circles there is a concept called "the singularity" where technological innovation will occur at a rate that we can no longer forecast what will happen.   It sounds like a very exciting time, when and if it happens.

Healthcare is heading toward it's own singularity.  Unfortunately, the changes in healthcare that will need to take place will come out of desperation as the system will completely and utterly breakdown.  In it's current form healthcare in the United States cannot exist.  The "burn rate" is too high.  Thanks to the corporate mechanism of healthcare in the US, most of the care is now centered on corporate profit and protecting corporate profit.

On the patient side:  Patients are manipulated by the system.  Health disinformation, poor preventative health information, public relations, and a systemic failure of the healthcare system have combined to leave patients, confused, taken advantage of, and with a growing distrust of a system that is more about dollars and less about health.  This growing resentment of drug-only therapies, poor doctors, and a lack of basic preventative education is leading to a tipping point, one that will ultimately lead to total system failure.

Patients are not oblivious to the abuses of the pharmaceutical industries.  There is a growing awareness that large non-profit organizations that are supposed to be fighting illnesses are not.  What has all this research gotten us? Are we "Racing for the Cure?" or are we "Strolling for the Cure" or "Meandering for the Cure."  Billions of research dollars wasted on "hey we're getting really close" but it never materializes into actual solutions, for health problems.   Where is that money going, why hasn't a cure been found?! 

It's Not Just You

The point is people don't realize that they have permission to be angry at a system that has failed them. They think that the failure is isolated and only occurred to them. Wrong!  These abuses and failures occur to a multiplicity of American Healthcare users.  It isn't isolated, it's epidemic.  Ask around.

Patients hope that if we keep going, that the system will change for the better, but history has proven that those in power don't change unless being made to.  People in power never willingly give it up, it must be taken from them. The system is broken and it won't be fixed until enough people get pissed off about it to force it to change.

The Enemy of My Enemy

We have an strange ally in this sad drama, corporate greed.  Medicine is now a corporate entity, as a matter of fact it should be called "Medicine, Inc."  It's no longer a service-based industry.  It is attempting to become a monopoly on what is most important to us all, our health.   You only get one body and that means that we are ultimately susceptible to abuses by the healthcare system and it's corporate allies.  Is anyone else worried that MBA's now run health systems and hospitals and not doctors?!   I am.

You may not have noticed it, but the wheels of change are in motion.  The major players in healthcare in their search for profit have all started to square off against each other as the teat of consumer dollars begins to dry up. The middle class in the US has been milked about as far as it can be by the health system.   Something has to give.

The Drug Companies, Medicine Inc., and the Health Insurance Industry are beginning to square off against each other.   Here's why:

1. Consumers are lead to believe by the myriad of drug marketing tools, that drugs are the way to health. The drug companies symbiotic relationship with Medicine, Inc. provides a mechanism of control and a clear stream of profit.   Both profit.
2. When someone profits someone loses.   So who loses?   The consumer, of course, along with another couple surprise losers that really no one expected.   Because Drug Companies and the Medicine Company have marketed that health comes from a little pill, many people are now on multiple medications.   What happens is sick people can no longer afford the costly patented medications that are prescribed and ask the Health Insurance Companies and the Federal Government (Medicare Part D) to pay for them.
3. This sets up a situation where the Drug Companies and to some extent the Medicine Company are profiting at the expense of the Health Insurance Industry and the Federal Government.  Yikes!  Looks like the American Healthcare consumer has found some new allies.  The Insurance Industry is every bit as much about profit as the Drug Industry and the increasing number of medications unscrupulously marketed to patients is costing Insurance Companies a bundle.  Not to mention that Sick-care and the "high-tech" diagnostics are costing insurance companies a ton.   Wellness and prevention pays!   Soon we will have the statistical data to prove it. The Sick-care Model is approaching it's demise.
   
4. They are looking for a new model, who wouldn't? The old one doesn't seem to be serving anyone except Big Pharma and the ineffective, Sick-care Model of the Medicine Company. Prediction: Medicare Part D will bankrupt Medicare if it isn't repealed. Wait and see.
5. The Collapse - The point in which the corporate interests of those in healthcare and apparent failure of the current healthcare model cause the healthcare system of the US to collapse.  Patients can't receive care in any form because it's too expensive, high-priced diagnostics tools and equipment cannot be paid for, insurances cut benefits to the bone, drug company profits will dwindle as consumers revolt in large numbers.   Mass chaos in the healthcare setting.
   
6. Health Insurance Companies and the Federal Government will be forced to be allies of Preventative Healthcare and low-cost effective alternatives such as Chiropractic, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, Nutritional and Lifestyle Therapies, and Mind-body Medicine.   The FDA has moved to protect it's buddies from their impending doom.  Here's proof: FDA CAM Guidance  If I was a CEO of an Insurance Company I would seriously consider promoting these health sciences.   There is good reason for people in Medicine and Pharma fear them, huge amounts of lost revenue.
   

The Collapse is the bottleneck that all of healthcare must pass through to exist in the future. What I think exists on the other side of The Collapse is wellness and prevention on a cultural scale.  You heard it here first!