Bearing the responsibility for people’s health and access to healthcare services can never be easy, and there are numerous attempts to improve the current healthcare system in the United States to make sure that all money is spent wisely. In his three articles, Atul Gawande, a surgeon and a writer, shares his experience related to healthcare costs and optimization. Personally, I believe that his works can provide a basis for further positive changes in the U. S. healthcare since they include a lot of legitimate arguments concerning price transparency, ways to reduce costs, and unnecessary routine treatment.
In the article devoted to healthcare costs, Gawande (2009) discusses the two conflicting goals that exist in healthcare: patient well-being and revenues. Just like many of my colleagues, I do not find this idea innovative. However, the author manages to add something new to the discussion by sharing the results of his research on the costs of typical treatment decisions made by physicians in low and high-cost cities.
In the end, being a healthcare consumer, I find the articles by Gawande interesting and mind-challenging because he pays primary attention to the ways of reducing unnecessary medical care. As is clear from the author’s medical practice, almost all surgical patients receive high-cost and unnecessary care, which increases healthcare spending and does not significantly improve health outcomes (Gawande, 2015). Another thing that has encouraged me to take a fresh look at modern healthcare is the researcher’s opinion concerning physicians’ awareness of healthcare costs. Patel and McStay (2015) note that Gawande regards increasing price transparency and the degree of physician responsibility as the key tasks that would help make treatment more outcome-oriented.
References
Gawande, A. (2009). The cost conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care. The New Yorker. Web.
Gawande, A. (2015). Overkill: An avalanche of unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and financially. What can we do about it? The New Yorker. Web.
Patel, K., & McStay, F. (2015). 5 things Atul Gawande learned on his return to McAllen, TX. Web.