Healthcare vs. Medical Care | What's The Difference And Why It Matters
The current approach to health in the United States is completely backwards. When you look closer, it's not hard to see. The United States spends more than 2x as much per person on healthcare than any other country in the world and yet experiences worse health outcomes than their peers around the world. So what's the problem?
Before we can begin to fix anything I feel an important first step is to understand the difference between healthcare vs. medical care. They are not the same thing. What is called ‘healthcare’ in the United States is actually medical care and does nothing to improve our overall health. Medical care is simply providing products, services, or procedures to manage symptoms of a condition. Making this important distinction will allow us to change our approach and begin providing more opportunies for patients tp create healthy habits and improve health outcomes.
Healthcare vs. Medical Care: What's The Difference?
The first step to improving health outcomes for individual patients is understanding the difference between healthcare vs medical care. While I'm sure you could look up long and complicated definitions of the terms, I think it's better to keep things simple.
Medical Care is Something Given Or Done To You By a Doctor
Healthcare Is Something You Do For Yourself
The problem is that we use the word 'healthcare' interchangeably with 'medical care'. They are not the same thing. And when we substitute medical care for things that actually improve our health, we run into the health problems we are currently seeing.
Aspects of Medical Care
Medical care is something given or done to you by a medical provider. In traditional medicine this involves pills, injections, surgeries, etc. In this definition, even more conservative treatments like chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage would be considered medical care. Some of the hallmarks of medical care include the following.
Treats Symptoms of Disease
Short Term Goals
Dependence on Doctors For Treatments
Passive Treatments
Reactive
Treating Isolated Body Parts
Better Outcomes For Acute Conditions and Emergencies
Narrow Spectrum of Benefits
Profit Driven
Medical providers simply provide a prescription or perform a treatment. The patient is a passive partcipant in their care.
Medical care is provided by a doctor to provide short term relief and symptoms management
Aspects Of Healthcare
Healthcare are things that patients do for themselves. Diet, exercise, stress relief, sleep are all aspects. The hallmarks of healthcare include:
Treats Causes of Disease
Long Term, Sustainable Goals
Independence From Doctors and Treatments
Active Treatments
Proactive and Builds Confidence
Treats the Whole Body
Better Outcomes For Chronic Conditions
Broad Spectrum of Benefits
Patient Driven
Healthcare providers help patients by providing the guidance, motivation, and accountability to create healthy habits and lifestyle. The patient is an active participant as they are the one who are doing the work.
Healthcare is performed by the patient to improve aspects of their health.
Why It Matters
Good health is a universal, human desire. Relying on medical services to manage symptoms of disease does not move us any closer to good health. In fact, it does the opposite. Ignoring underlying causes and providing ways for patients to improve create healthy habits earlier allows conditions to get worse as we get older. Diabetes, heart disease, many forms of cancer, arthritis, joint pain, most of the conditions that people suffer from as they get older are all dramatically influenced by your lifestyle. No medical product, service, or procedure can fix a lifestyle.
The only way to improve health outcomes in the United States is to provide patients with real healthcare. Education, guidance, motivation, and accountability to help create healthy habits and allow patients to take control of their health.
Conclusion
Understanding the differences between healthcare vs medical care is the first step to improving health outcomes in the United States. If we stop wasting time and money on endless medical care and start investing in ways to help our community improve their habits and lifestyle, we can drastically improve health outcomes for all conditions.
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