“Health care reform is no longer just a moral imperative, it is a fiscal imperative. If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy, then we must address the crushing cost of health care this year, in this administration. This time, there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality, affordable health care — the only question is, how?”
— President Barack Obama at the White House Forum on Health Reform March 5, speaking to roughly 120 experts about how the nation's current costly and inefficient health care system is dragging down the ailing U.S. economy.
2020
By this year, there will be a projected nationwide physician
shortage of between 51,000 and 228,000.
Source: American Medical Association
$218
billion The amount diabetes cost the U.S. in 2007 in direct medical
care and indirect costs, such as lost productivity.
Source: The Associated Press/Lewin Group
30%
Patients who have a clear understanding of their after-hospital
care instructions, including how to take their medicines and when
to make follow-up appointments, are 30 percent less likely to be
readmitted or visit the emergency department than patients who
don't.
Source: Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) study
4%
The average increase in respiratory-related hospitalizations for
every degree increased over a temperature threshold. As the mercury
rises, so does the number of respiratory admissions, although the
under- lying mechanisms are poorly understood. The elderly are most
likely to be affected.
Source: Assessment and Prevention of Acute Health Effects
of Weather Conditions in Europe
“There's not one of us in this room who could create a blade of grass this spring, not one of us who could cure a cough this winter — all of us in health care are only assisting nature to do what it can do. For all of us serving in health care, we need to rededicate ourselves to the vocation to which we have been called — to heal and to serve.”
— Sister Charlotte R. Kerr, RSM, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP Committee hearing last month where witnesses suggested creation of a White House Office for Health and Wellness.
